The University of North Georgia is hosting its first Art History Symposium from 3 – 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 15. The symposium will be divided into two sessions. In each session, 12 students from ART 4591 and three UNG faculty members will present their research with visual aids in three simultaneous panels.
Dr. Elissa Ferguson, the professor of the High Impact Practices course ART 4591 Art History Undergraduate Research, said all of the student presenters “are in my class. The entire class has been them working on choosing a topic, developing it, learning how to do scholarly research and to present their ideas in a nicely organized way that gives credit to their sources properly. So it’s very much learning all the steps to doing this really advanced style, not only of research, but of writing.”
A High Impact Practices course, according to UNG, is a course that implements teaching strategies that are proven to have a high impact on students. Ferguson explained that these HIP courses develop class projects to incorporate actual work experience or they can be based on writing and research like ART 4591.
Located in Room 1203 and adjacent classrooms in the Arts and Technology Building on the Gainesville campus, the Art History Symposium is a free and public event designed to let students and faculty present their research within art history. Both the students and faculty presenters had the opportunity to choose the topics their projects are based on, creating a diverse range of research. Some of the topics that the audience will learn about include Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, Norman Rockwell’s art styles related to his presentation of food in advertisements, 1980s art posters found in classrooms for K-5th grade and Roman propaganda from the time of Constantine.
“It’s supposed to be a conference style event so the students get the opportunity to actually deliver this original research that they’ve done pretty much completely on their own and also get to hear how these faculty members deliver professionally, coming from a more experienced background.” – Dr. Elissa Ferguson, ART 4591 professor
Dr. Ana Pozzi Harris, a Visual Arts professor presenting alongside students, will talk about her research with a visual aid presentation titled “Adan Hernandez’s Chicanas and Rucas: Art and Chicana Feminism in San Antonio, 2003 – 2006.”
While focusing on the Chicano artist Hernandez, Pozzi Harris explores his artwork centered around how he portrays women who hang out with gangsters. The representation of these women, called “rucas” in Chicano culture, varies over time.
According to Pozzi Harris, “Hernandez’s earlier rucas are represented as faulty women whose sexual relationships with gangsters make them indifferent to violence.” In later depictions, “women appear as more triumphant rather than faulty” and “as victims of sexual violence, rather than perpetrators of it.”
Ferguson described this event as a major step forward for the department, as it gives students a platform to present their independent research publicly and among experienced presenters.
“We’re in this warm, safe space where they can practice those skills at a really advanced level and hopefully gain the confidence and the ability to talk with confidence… about anything, be it their own art, their research, maybe its work, pitch, anything like that.” – Dr. Elissa Ferguson, ART 4591 professor
“They’re doing a lot of work here, doing a lot of new things, so it’s just kind of an exciting opportunity that they have for the first time with our department,” Ferguson said.
