Student Research

Bowdoin students have pursued an exciting array of independent research in Art History.  Under the guidance of an individual faculty member, students have the opportunity to dive into particular areas, artists, and approaches of their own choosing.  Below are examples of recent honors projects and independent studies.

Site, Power, and Experience: Three Contemporary Installation Works on Global Mobility
By: Sabina Lin ‘21

Sabrina’s Honors Project investigated themes of immigration, space, and mobility through the lens of contemporary installation art. Using the works of Yanagi Yukinori, Alfredo Jaar, and Doris Salcedo as case studies, the project analyzed how artists use the medium of installation to address institutional history, contemporary geopolitics, as well as individual and collective experience. Sabrina completed her project under the guidance of Professor Pamela Fletcher (May 2021).

Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas, 130 x 190 cm
Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas, 130 x 190 cm, https://smarthistory.org/edouard-manetolympia/.

Sex Sells: The Iconography of Sex Work in Contemporary Art Since 1973
By: Mackenzie Philbrick '20

Mackenzie’s Honors Project focused on contemporary renderings of the sex worker as a response to the heavily constructed formalist ideology of the “pure gaze” which privileged the heterosexual male voyeur. Across three chapters—painting and photography, body art, and systemic critiques—the project explored the real ramifications of class construction and relational or performative identity to understand how larger social processes play out on certain marginalized bodies. Mackenzie completed her project under the guidance of Professor Pamela Fletcher (May 2020).

Recent Independent Studies

Brandon Lozano-Garay ’23
Title: Contemporary Art and the Anthropocene

An Art History-Environmental Studies coordinate major, Brandon studied recent literature on topics such as environmental aesthetics, eco-feminism, and settler colonialism.  With a particular interest in photography, Brandon also researched and produced Anthotypes with support from a Bowdoin mini-grant.  This project was completed under the guidance of Professor Peggy Wang (fall 2023).

Maeve Morse ’18
Title: Extending Definitions of Narrative Medicine: Artist Books and Martha Hall

A Neuroscience major/Art History minor, Maeve researched Martha’s Hall’s artist books in Bowdoin’s Special Collections as valuable resources for both artistic and medical communities. Maeve conducted her research under the guidance of Professor Pamela Fletcher (fall 2017) and Professor Tara Kohn (spring 2018).

Sarah Freshnock ’17
Title: Urban Impressions: New York City in Prints, 1900–1940

An Art History and Visual Arts interdisciplinary major, Sarah conducted her research under the guidance of Professor Dana Byrd (summer and fall 2016). Sarah’s work culminated in the exhibition Urban Impressions at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. 

Catherine Cyr ’17
Title: Let's Play—Exploring Childhood in Brunswick, 19001950

For her student-designed major, Catherine produced the exhibition Let's Play—Exploring Childhood in Brunswick, 1900-1950 at the Pejepscot History Center. Displaying the material culture of children in the Brunswick area during the first half of the twentieth century, the items in the exhibition take a closer look at the ways in which ideas about gender affected the objects produced for children. Catherine worked with Professor Dana Byrd on her yearlong capstone project.