UC Davis Art History Program

06/02/2026

Please join us for the Art History M.A. Colloquium on Friday, June 5!

The art history M.A. Class of 2026 Lena Sakkab, Grace Wu and Madeline Madrid will present their graduating theses from 2-5 pm in Everson 157. Their presentations and a Q&A will be followed by a light reception.

The colloquium is part of the “Arts & Humanities 2026 Graduate Exhibition” which showcases the culminating work of graduate students in art history, art studio, design, music and Performance Studies. We hope to see you there!

Arts & Humanities 2026 Graduate Exhibition
June 4-20, Manetti Shrem Museum

Opening reception
Thursday, June 4 from 5:30-9 pm

Art History M.A. Graduate Colloquium
Friday, June 5 from 2-5 pm, 157 Everson

Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum Explore new ways of seeing and understanding the past, present and future. ...

04/03/2026

Happening today: the 4th Annual Art History Symposium!

This year’s theme is Visual Imperialism.

Speakers:
Madeline Madrid, second year MA student in art history, presenting her paper: “Making the Menagerie: Jan Breughel the Elder’s Entry of Animals into Noah’s Ark.”

Naomi Rodriguez, first year MA student in art history, presents ”Frank Romero’s Arrest of the Paleteros: Reclaiming the Chicano Identity.”

Lena Sakkab, second year MA student in art history, presenting her paper: “The Odalisque Captured in Yusef Nabil’s Photographs”

Arzoo Thaker, third year Ph.D. student in French and Francophone Studies, presents “Unarchiving the Archives: Reclaiming Subjecthood in La Noire de...”

Friday, April 3 from 12-2 in Everson 157. We will start the event with a light reception at 11:30 in Everson 163

See you there!

03/16/2026

Professor Heghnar Watenpaugh will present a public lecture at the National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (INALCO) on Mar. 27 in Paris. Her talk on "Survivor Objects and Captive Sites: Art and Cultural Heritage in Genocide" will be the inaugural presentation for the International Master’s Program in Armenian Studies (IMAS) for which Watenpaugh is the 2025 IMAS Visiting Chair of Excellence.

Visit INALCO for more information:
https://www.inalco.fr/actualites

Cycle Grands Témoins : la Fondation Inalco accueille Philippe Étienne, Ambassadeur de France Conférences Fondation Relations internationales

02/17/2026

Mark your calendars for the 2026 Templeton Colloquium in Art History examining "Art History and Climate Change."

The intersection between climate change and art history opens new pathways for understanding how visual and material culture mediates human relationships to the natural world. Historical and contemporary depictions of nature illuminate how aesthetic practices register environmental knowledge and respond to ecological stress. Far from being a luxury of elite culture, art history is an essential tool for imagining alternative ecological futures.

This year's speakers are Andrew Patrizio, Professor of Scottish Visual Culture, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh and Alan C. Braddock, Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art History, Environmental Humanities and American Studies. William and Mary.

Friday, March 6 from 4-6 pm
Manetti Shrem Museum

Co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

Image: Richard Mosse, Burnt Pantanal II, 2020, archival pigment print, 59x108.5 inches. © Richard Mosse. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

02/07/2026

New Art History course this spring!
Viewing Animals in Early Modern Europe (AHI 190I/290)
Prof. Michael Yonan, Th. 12:10-3 pm

What was it like to be a nonhuman creature in early modern Europe? How did human beings understand animals, their lives, their minds, and their place in the cosmos? What does art reveal about the human-animal relationship? This seminar will inquire into how art
relates to animal histories. Our readings will draw from classic texts about animal subjectivity (Berger, Nagel), from the interdisciplinary field of critical animal studies (Fraiman, Haraway, Derrida) and from art history specifically (Cohen, Gren, Hornstein, Freund, among others). Students will select a work of art representing an animal and produce a quarter-long research project on it.

Prerequisite: AH major; MA status; or instructor’s consent.

Image: Antoine Watteau, Sheet of Studies of Two Men and Cats, 1710s (Musée Bonnat, Bayonne)

09/06/2025

Listen to Professors Talinn Grigor and Houri Berberian on the Society for Armenian Studies Podcast as they discuss their book The Armenian Woman with host Bedros Torosian.

https://www.podbean.com/pw/pbblog-igg64-5074e7

08/26/2025

Professor Katharine Burnett recently traveled to Malaysia to conduct site research. She visited a private collection near the Straights of Melaka, where all ships had to sail between the East and the West, and interviewed experts on the spread of tea culture in Kuala Lumpur. And of course, she visited some amazing museums!

Asian culture is tea culture and tea culture is art.

Photos:
1. At Bukit Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with local tea expert Ho Keon Leong and Bob Moustakas.
2. Pouring tea from an Yixing ware teapot made in China for the Japanese market, into a porcelain teacup from Jingdezhen, China’s porcelain capital during the Ming dynasty. Also shown: a Jian-ware tea bowl for matcha from the Northern Song, and a horse-hoof shaped porcelain teacup (Jingdezhen) from the early Qing dynasty.
3. Teh Tarik barista. Did you know that the work “tea” derives from a Fujian language for tea? Regions that use it received their tea through the maritime trade routes. Hello Melaka!
4. A trip to the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur to underscore the importance of Islam and the interconnected relationship
of people and cultures through the straits of Melaka.

07/11/2025

Professor Michael Yonan took a break from researching at the library of the Central Institute of Art History to visit the court theater of Munich, designed by François de Cuvilliés in 1751-1753.

06/01/2025

Please join us for the 2025 Art History Graduate Colloquium at the Manetti Shrem Museum on Friday, June 6, 2025.

Art history graduate students Greg Brida, Darian Dveris, Harriet Insco, Alia Kalla, Ruochen Qin and Anya Thompson will present their graduating theses at 3:00 p.m. The presentations and Q&A will be followed by a light reception.

https://manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/arts-and-humanities-2025-graduate-exhibition

05/14/2025

Looking for an inspired class this fall? Consider Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: Manet to 1900 (AHI183B) with Professor James Housefield!

2024 marked the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition – a key moment in the development of modern art. This course considers the emergence of modern art by analyzing exhibitions, art criticism, historic events and social contexts, the history of ideas, artists, and artworks. Some themes include: education of artists, myth of the artist, history of exhibitions , and intersections between modern science and mysticism. This is the perfect time to enroll in AHI183B: lectures align with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s Legion of Honor exhibition “Manet and Morisot” (October 11, 2025 – March 1, 2026). Professor Housefield has curated an exhibition for the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art that we will study, “Inspired Impressions: Prints by Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, & those who inspired them, from the Collections of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art” (August 2025 – March 2026), emphasizing direct experience of paintings, prints, and sculpture.
CRN: 20610/20611

Image: Manet, The Balcony, 1868-1869. Musée d’Orsay, Paris