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(209) 667-3431

Art Building, A38

College of the Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Welcome to the Art History's News and Accomplishments page.

Check out who and what is happening with our students and faculty.

Goodbye Alice!

It is with great sadness that Dr. Alice Heeren will be leaving us to teach at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, but we wish her all the best, and she will be greatly missed! It was a pleasure and an honor working with her, and the students here were incredibly lucky to study with her. 
 

Publications and Presentations

Alice Heeren with bookcase
Alice Heeren
Alice Heeren published '"Here everything appears to be still in construction and is already a ruin’: rethinking ‘brasilidade’ in the work of Cerith Wyn Evans and Laercio Redondo," Burlington Contemporary, November 2024. She also presented at the American Association of Portuguese Studies and Latin American Studies Association conferences and participated in the Roundtable: Contemporary Art and Society in Brazil at the Fowler Museum. 
 
 
 
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Staci Gem Scheiwiller
Staci Gem Scheiwiller published a book and an article this year: Women's Agency and Ontology in Nineteenth-Century Iranian Photography: A Mirror for Princesses (Routledge 2025); and Contextualizing Islam, Slavery, and Orientalism in 19th-Century Iranian Photography, in The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Race, ed. Zain Abdullah (Routledge 2025). She also chaired a panel at the conference Rethinking Ta‘ziyeh: Performance, Memory, and Space in a Shi‘a Devotional Tradition (UCSD)
 

Announcements

May 2025

Carla Contreras is the Outstanding Student in Art History for '25
Congratulations to Carla Contreras who is Outstanding Student in Art History for 2024-2025!
Art History Celebratory Luncheon was held at Chili's. From left to right: Dr. Heeren, Dr. Scheiwiller, Professor Curtis, Jordan Jones, Carla Contreras, and Madison Bettencourt.
The Art History Celebratory Luncheon was held at Chili's. From left to right: Dr. Heeren, Dr. Scheiwiller, Professor Curtis, Jordan Jones, Carla Contreras, and Madison Bettencourt.
The Art History Celebratory Luncheon with Dr. Heeren, Dr. Scheiwiller, Professor Curtis, Jordan Jones, Carla Contreras, and Madison Bettencourt.
Front: Dr. Heeren, Dr. Scheiwiller, Jordan Jones; Back: Jessica Curtis, Carla Contreras, and Madison Bettencourt.
Bethany Padron, who graduated with an Art History minor and is now a PhD candidate at UC Merced
Bethany Padron, who graduated with an Art History minor and is now a PhD candidate at UC Merced, gave the keynote address at the 24th Annual Honors Capstone Conference at Stan State.
 

March 2025

Art History minor Maddie Guevara presenting at the 39th Annual Student Research Competition
Congratulations to Art History minor Maddie Guevara, who presented at the 39th Annual Student Research Competition at Stan State.
Fall in Love with Your Major with Jordan Jones (left) and Jessica Curtis
Fall in Love with Your Major Expo: Jordan Jones (left) and Jessica Curtis (Right).

Congratulations to Jordan Jones!
Outstanding Student in Art History, 2024

  • Delegate to CSU Statewide SRC, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 2024:
    "Crossing the Line: The erotic narrative of Robert Mapplethorpe"
  • 3rd Place Winner, Stanislaus State Student Research Competition, 2024: "Crossing the Line: The erotic narrative of Robert Mapplethorpe"
  • Student Engagement in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (SERSCA) Undergraduate Assistantship, 2022-23: "Crossing the Line: An exploration into the erotic narrative of Robert Mapplethorpe"
  • SERSCA Travel Grant, 2022-23: Getty Research Institute
  • Adviser: Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller

Recent Publications of the Art History Professors

Dr. Alice Heeren:

“The Many Lives of Oscar Niemeyer’s Column: The Legacy of Brasília, Coloniality, and Heritage in the Works of Lais Myrrha and Talles Lopes,” Arts 12, n. 2, p. 56-73, 2023.
“Abstraction Lies: Political Dissonance and Brasília’s Miniature Worlds,” PLATFORM, Oct. 9, 2023.

Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller:

"TIME TRAVELING: THE SCULPTURAL WORK OF DEAN DE COCKER,” in Dean De Cocker: The Tide Begins to Turn" (Turlock: California State University, Stanislaus, 2024), p. 2-4.

Left to Right: Angela Esau, Professor Ellen Roehn, Jordan Jones and Kat Crossley at the Chili's restraunt.

Celebrating February and March Birthdays in the Art History Program

Our little celebration at Chili's, March 7, 2024.
Left to Right: Angela Esau (Art History Minor/BFA), Professor Ellen Roehne (Art History and Studio), Jordan Jones (Art History Major/BFA), Artist Kat Crossley (Photograph taken by Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller)

 

Art History faculty Alice Heeren

Dr. Alice Heeren

It has been one academic year since Dr. Alice Heeren joined our program!
We are so thrilled she is with us!

Recent Publications:
The Many Lives of Oscar Niemeyer’s Column: The Legacy of Brasília, Coloniality, and Heritage in the Works of Lais Myrrha and Talles Lopes
Arts Vol. 12 Iss. 2, 2023 (https:// doi.org/10.3390/arts12020056)

 

Staci Scheiwiller

Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller

Recent Publications:
A Phantasmagoria of Owls: Shadows and Layers in HK Zamani’s Artwork, in HK Zamani: Edifice/Oedipus (Turlock: California State University, Stanislaus, 2023), 4-5

Archiving Donna Stein, in Women: A Cultural Review (2022):  DOI: 10.1080/09574042.2022.2072624

 

Art History 2023 gradutes

Congratulations to our graduating Art History majors of 2023!

Back Row, L-R: Lesley Negrete, Sasha Thompson, Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller, Bethany Saint-Smith, and Valeria González
Front Row, L-R: Camila Albertini, Bryce Burton, Dr. Alice Heeren

 

Camila Albertini

Camila Albertini

Graduate Class of 2023
Interdisciplinary Studies master’s student, main field in Art History
Master’s Thesis: “Queering Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)”
Adviser: Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller

 

Bryce Burton

Bryce Burton

Art History Graduate Class of 2023

 

Valeria Gonzalez

Valeria González

Art History Graduate Class of 2023

 

Lesley Negrete

Lesley Negrete

Art History Graduate Class of 2023
SERSCA Undergraduate Research Assistantship, AY 22-23:
“Nineteenth-century Tobacco Collecting Cards of Female Celebrities”
Adviser: Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller

 

Bethany Saint Smith

Bethany Saint-Smith

Art History minor, Graduate Class of 2023
McNair Scholar - McNair Thesis: “Representations of Skin Tone, Colorism, and Reimagining Marginality for Black Women”
Mentor: Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller
Honors Program
Accepted to the MA/Ph.D.  Interdisciplinary Humanities Program with a discipline in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Program at UC Merced with Chancellor’s Fellowship for Inclusive Excellence and five years of additional funding

 

Sasha Thompson

Sasha Thompson

Art History Graduate Class of 2023
Outstanding Student Achievement Medal of Honor, Art History
McNair Scholar - McNair Thesis: “Slow Curating: Rethinking the Concepts in which Modern Works are Exhibited”
Mentor: Dr. Staci Gem Scheiwiller
Study Abroad in Italy, AY 2022-2023
Accepted to the MA/Ph.D. Art History Program at the University of Delaware with a two-year research assistantship

 

Updated: June 04, 2025