Bard Graduate Center is devoted to the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture through research, advanced degrees, exhibitions, publications, and events.

Bard Graduate Center advances the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture through its object-centered approach to teaching, research, exhibitions, publications, and events.

At BGC, we study the human past and present through their material expressions. We focus on objects and other material forms—from those valued for their aesthetic elements to the ordinary things used in everyday life.

Our accomplished interdisciplinary faculty inspires and prepares students in our MA and PhD programs for successful careers in academia, museums, and the private sector. We bring equal intellectual rigor to our acclaimed exhibitions, award-winning catalogues and scholarly publications, and innovative public programs, and we view all of these integrated elements as vital to our curriculum.

BGC’s campus comprises a state-of-the-art academic programs building at 38 West 86th Street, a gallery at 18 West 86th Street, and a residence hall at 410 West 58th Street. A new collection study center will open at 8 West 86th Street in 2026.

Founded by Dr. Susan Weber in 1993, Bard Graduate Center has become the preeminent institute for academic research and exhibition of decorative arts, design history, and material culture. BGC is an accredited unit of Bard College and a member of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH).

Commencement, Bard College, May 27

http://www.bard.edu/news/commencement/

PhD dissertation titles, MPhil dissertation topics, and MA qualifying paper titles are listed below each student’s name.

[no-indent]Doctor of Philosophy
Caroline Margaret Hannah, New York, New York
Henry Varnum Poor: Crow House, Craft, and Design

Masako H. Shinn, New York, New York
Case Studies in Critical Regionalism: Takashi Sugimoto, Kuma Kengo, and Hiroshi Sambuichi

Master of Philosophy
Martina A. D’Amato, New York, New York
Lyon and the Revival of the French Renaissance, 1877–1917

Marjorie L. Folkman, Boston, Massachusetts
Dancing Imprints: Choreographic Persistence of Interwar European Avant-Garde Visual Culture

Master of Arts
Persephone Allen, Providence, Rhode Island
The Metallic Sphere as Mechanical Eye: Reflected Identities at the Bauhaus

Alexandra Grey Beuscher, Westwood, Massachusetts
Portals, Vessels, and Seams: The Seal in Yup’ik Material Culture

Michael Herkimer Dewberry, Dallas, Texas
The Birth of ‘Millionaire’s Taste’: Famille Noire in Western Collections

Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie, Harrowsmith, Canada
Art and Imperial Allegory: The Glass Deckelpokal of Archduke Ferdinand II

Anna Mikaela Ekstrand, Stockholm, Sweden
The Presence of the Past: Influence of Porcelain Production on Contemporary Art from Jingdezhen

Emily Sumner Field, Tecumseh, Michigan
The History and Continuing Impact of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

Margaret Stauffer Frick, Springboro, Ohio
Cooking for the Masses: An Examination of 18th-Century Tavern Cookbooks and the Urban Metropolis

Amanda Joan Hinckle, Richmond, Virginia
“Who Tells Your Story?” Online Audiences and Museums of Early American History

Susan J. Hunter, New York, New York
The Rustiques Figulines of Bernard Palissy

Irene Jaramillo-Vélez, Manizales, Colombia
Prosthetic Bodies in Public Space: The Reception and Perception of the Crinoline in France, 1856–67

Aleena Malik, Lahore, Pakistan
The Qur’an of ’Uthmān: From Religion to Political Legitimacy

Sheila Margaret Moloney, Brockton, Massachusetts
Crystal Palaces, Glass Houses, and Geodesic Domes: The VSI Study House Nr. 1 and Its Antecedents

Michael Austin Parker, Montclair, New Jersey
Zippos at the Wall: Engraved Lighters in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Collection

Grace Reff, Nashville, Tennessee
From Mexico to Black Mountain College: Josef Albers, Clara Porset, and the Butaque

Catherine Dickson Stergar, Columbia, South Carolina
“The Everlasting Fire of Achievement”: An Examination of the Life and Career of Ceramic Artist Mary Chase Perry (1867–1961)

Darienne Turner, Baltimore, Maryland
Women as Flock, Woman as Shepherd: Croziers and Gender Performance in the Middle Ages

Alyssa Velazquez, Vineland, New Jersey
The Makings of a Character: Aging, Gender, and Sexuality in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Operetta Patience

Nadia Westenburg, Redding, Connecticut
A New Deal for the Parks: Interpretation and Poster Advertising for the National Park Service, 1938–41