Qualify for Departmental Honors

Senior Thesis Prize Recipient

Amanda Anderson, GS 2007, for A Villanovan Hut Urn, Miniaturization and Change
Advisor: Joanna Smith
Description: Miniature spatial representations today are used to solve problems and teach lessons; to put something into a controllable scale. In archaeology these have rarely been discussed in this context. The Villanovan hut urn from the Olcott collection of Columbia University is an interesting example of scale reduction; in the context of miniaturization as a means of making something controllable, what does this indicate about the culture and community that created this item? How does the funerary context add to this? The cremated remains interred in the urn are also part of Columbia's collection and were analyzed with the urn, giving an added level to a miniature hut; unlike most miniature spatial representations this hut had an occupant.

Senior Thesis Research Fellowship Recipients

Jon Brilliant, CC 2007 "Personality Cult of Mao Zedong, from photographic portraits to propaganda posters"

Elisabeth Vastola, CC 2007 "Paul Klee and the Philosophical Child"

Past Senior Thesis Prize Recipients

Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen, CC 2006, for Mortification: Duchamp's Etant donnés and the Fortunate Fall
Advisor: Susan Laxton.
Description: This thesis explores the relationship of Duchamp's installation (1946-1966) to a particularly pregnant constellation of bodily attitudes: shame, modesty, and exhibitionism. The thesis attempts to show how Etant donnes crystallizes a radically new concept of sexualized social relationships within the modern museum as a public space.

Andrea Herbst, CC 2003, for Perception and Reception Between Athens and Etruria: The Imagery on Tyrrhenian Amphorae
Advisor: Clemente Marconi.
Description: I looked at a particular class of Athenian vases known as the Tyrrhenian amphorae, which were made between 560 and 530 B.C. There is general agreement that these vases were made in Athens specifically for export to Etruria, the ancient name of the area that roughly encompasses Tuscany today. I proved that the iconographies of many of the Tyrrhenian amphorae were altered in order to appeal specifically to the Etruscan market. This brought up a series of issues of relating to Athenian stereotypes of the Etruscans and how the Etruscans presented themselves to the rest of the ancient world.

Past Senior Thesis Research Fellowship Recipients

Karolyna Dryjanska, CC 2003, for research towards her senior thesis on Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929), a Polish symbolist painter and his role as "creator" of a nation.

Andrea Herbst, CC 2003, for research towards her senior thesis on Tyrrhenian amphorae and imagery, the relationship between Etruscan consumers and their Atenian products.