Announcing the 2023 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellows in American Art

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has announced the 2023 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellows in American Art. Seven exceptional scholars have been selected to receive support for the research and writing of their dissertations, which explore a wide range of topics in American art and visual culture.

"ACLS is proud to support this group of promising scholars of art through our continued partnership with the Luce Foundation," said ACLS President Joy Connolly. "Their work, which connects the study of American art with disability studies, Indigenous studies, and Chicanx studies, among others, exemplifies how the study of art and visual culture can provide invaluable insights into American history and issues currently facing our society — as well as understanding of the ineffable impact of artworks on human beings."

Each fellow will receive $42,000 to support one year of research and writing as well as fellowship-related travel between July 2023 and May 2025. The 2023 fellowship recipients are:

• Dusti Bridges, Cornell University, (Re)lating Archaeological Collections: Hodinöhsö:ni' Art, Colonialist Histories, and Indigenous Futurities in Archaeological Research
• Ashley Duffey, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (Re)visioning Kinship: Photographies of U.S.-Korean Adoption since 1953
• Sonja Gandert, City University of New York, The Graduate Center, La resolana: Chicano Artistic Imaginaries of Place, Race, and Activism in New Mexico and Texas, 1969–1985
• Emma Kennedy, Northwestern University, Entangled Lives: The Representation of Blackness and Indigeneity in Contemporary Art
• Phillippa Pitts, Boston University, Pharmacoepic Dreams: Art and America’s Medical Democracy, 1800-1860
• Elizabeth Smith, University of California, Santa Barbara, Build/Live/Work: Artist-Built Environments and the Expanded Vernacular in the Twentieth Century Ellen Holtzman Fellow
• Meshell Sturgis, University of Washington, The Political Aesthetics of Black Girl Magic: Self-Representation in Alternative Media

Learn More About the 2023 Fellows and Their Research Projects