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Awards and Achievements

(Image: Art History 2019 Honors recipients, Montgomery Nelson, Ridley Rochell, Kathryn Rothstein & Yiran Chi with Prof. Clayson.)

Each year, the department awards four prizes. The most prestigious award is the J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis given to a senior chosen by the Committee on Undergraduate Affairs to have written an exemplary thesis on a topic advised by a faculty member in the department. Our coveted Outstanding Junior Art History Major is awarded to a student who performs exceptionally well in the classroom and is an active campus citizen. The department also gives two writing prizes. The David Van Zanten Prize in Advanced Art Historical Writing goes to a student judged to have done outstanding work in a 300-level course and the Warnock Prize for Art Historical Writing recognizes excellent work for an introductory-level course.

2024

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis 

Madie Giaconia, "Exhibiting the Anti-Empire: The Ukrainian Section at the 1928 Venice Biennale"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major  

Sam Kliss

David Van Zanten Prize in Advanced Art Historical Writing 

Elizabeth Dudley

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing 

Alex Hoffman

Past recipients

2023

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis 

Grace Wu, "Illustrating Indigeneity: Xie Sui’s Huang Qing zhigong tu and the critical reevaluation of its depictions of aboriginal Taiwanese peoples, 1751-1775 and 2006-2022"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major 

Madie Giaconia

David Van Zanten Prize in Advanced Art Historical Writing

Sadie Bernstein 

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing 

Sean Liu

2022

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis 

Bailey Pekar, "'That Which No Other Country can Duplicate': Greece’s Display of Plaster Casts at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893" 

Outstanding Junior Art History Major  

Vitoria Faria 

David Van Zanten Prize in Advanced Art Historical Writing 

Helen Bradshaw 

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing 

Grace Wu

2021

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis 

Rory Tsapayi, "The Right to See Knows No Obstacle: Staffrider, Afrapix and Social Documentary Photography in South Africa, 1976-1983"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major  

Evangeline Bambakidis and Bailey Pekar 

David Van Zanten Prize in Advanced Art Historical Writing 

Evangeline Bambakidis 

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing 

Madie Giaconia

 

2020

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis 

Meghan Considine, "Knowledge and Wonder: Place, Policy and Publics"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major  

Fiona Asokacitta and Brianna Heath 

David Van Zanten Prize in Advanced Art Historical Writing 

Emily Andrey 

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing 

Ethan Chen

 

2019

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis 

Yiran Chi,"Now You Have No Gender': CGI Feet, China’s Digital Working Class, and a New Bodily Discourse in Li Shuang’s T

Kathryn Rothstein, "An American Art Journalist: The Untold Story of Aline B. Saarinen, 1914-1972"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major  

Lois Biggs and Nicholas Liou 

David Van Zanten Prize in Advanced Art Historical Writing 

Meghan Considine 

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing 

Alfonso Pacheco, Yiran Chi and Kathryn Rothstein

2018

Outstanding Junior Art History Major Prize

Kathryn Rothstein

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing

Sarayah Wright and Luke Cimarusti

2017

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Linnea Hodge, “Northwest Coast Indian Art’ at the Century 21 Exposition: Native Phantasmagoria and Seattle’s ‘Cultural Heritage”

Outstanding Junior Art History Major Prize

Yucheng Zhu

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing

Steven Norwalk and Emily Moon

2016

Outstanding Junior Art History Major Prize

Linnea Hodge and Julia Poppy

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing

Will Kirkland

2015

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Sinéad López and Alexander Lordahl

Outstanding Junior Art History Major Prize

Oona Ahn

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing

Mariam Al Askari and Perry Nigro

2014

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Claire Dillon, "Empty Space and Identity Politics in the Work of Félix González-Torres: Negation, Visual Rhyme, and Creative Reinterpretation"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major Prize

Sinéad López

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing

Peter Adams

2013

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Jasmine Jennings, "The Problem in Room 24: Racial Constructions and the Making of National Identity in the National Museum of Fine Arts of Argentina"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major Prize

Hannah Kleinman

Warnock Prize in Art Historical Writing

Sinéad López

2012

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Matthew Kluk, "The Maison Cubiste: Modernist Fantasy and Bourgeois Reality"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major Prize

Sophie Jenkins

Best 200-Level Paper Prize

Jessica Bickel-Barlow

2011

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Kristin Leasia, "The Emergence of Nurse and Guardian Images in Ancient Egyptian Royal Funerary Art: Some Connections to Dynasty 18 Pharaonic Legitimacy and the Hathor Cult"
and
Sophia Mancall-Bitel, "In Search of Los Angeles: Myths, Movies and Maps in the Work of Ed Ruscha"

Outstanding Junior Art History Major Prize

Matthew Kluk
Kerry Bickford

Best 200-Level Paper Prize

Ellie (Jennifer) Graham

2010

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Elliot Reichert, "Unretractable Social Marks: The Critical Spatial Practice of Street Art"
and
Jennifer Wong, "Reinventing the Ancient: the Transforming Female Figures of the Twentieth Century Painter Zhang Daqian"

2009

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Jessica Davidson, "Candidates for Admiration: Identity and Display in the Art of London's Public Parks, 1750 - 1800"
and
Viktoriya Kamara, "Extending Discourse on Soviet Art 1920's -1930's: The Career of Ekaterina Zernova"

2007

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Amanda Wasielewski, "From the Urban Dérive to the Internet Drive: Deterritorialized Capitalism in the Guise of a Digital Utopia"

2005

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Darrah Doyle, "HIV/AIDS Is Our Concern: An Examination of a Work by Artists of the Chivirika Self-Help Embroidery Project"
and
Lauren Wright, "Time-based to Time-bearing: Temporality in Recent Film and Video Art"

2004

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Alison Goldstein, "Dürer versus Raimondi: A Claim of Ownership"

2003

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

David Peterson, "National Endowment for the Arts v. Karen Finley: Understanding U.S. Government Arts Funding Amidst Controversy, Political Warfare and Ideological Clashes"

2002

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Dana Atlagic, "Perpetuating Inequalities: A Look at Happenings Through Gendered Criticism"

2001

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Brook Crowley, "Compassionate Orientalism: Théodore Chassériau's Arab Horsemen Carrying away Their Dead, 1850"

1999

J. Carson Webster Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis

Anju Shivaram,"'Imagined' Femininities: The Chinese Calendar Woman as National Symbol"
and
David Mullet, "Etats Secondaires in Czech Symbolist and Surrealist Art"