Lauren Dodds

Lauren Dodds is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and recipient of the Visual Studies Graduate Certificate. Her general research interests include the history of collecting, museum studies, and early modern Italian art. She is currently working on her dissertation, “Collecting the Renaissance: The Samuel H. Kress Collection of Italian Art.” This study focuses on the creation and dispersal of the largest private collection of fourteenth- to sixteenth-century Italian art ever assembled by an American, with over three thousand works. In her project, the Kress Collection serves as a prism through which to explore questions about collecting, cultural appropriation, conservation, and the place of Italian Renaissance art in 20^th c. American museums and civic life.

A former Lilly Fellow in the Humanities and Arts, Lauren’s research has also benefitted from support by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, USC Department of Art History, Visual Studies Research Institute, and Katherine Rigsbee Dougan Grant. Prior to beginning the PhD program at USC, Lauren interned at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She graduated summa cum laude from Pepperdine University in 2008 and received her M.A. in art history at Southern Methodist University in 2011.

• MA , Southern Methodist Univ, 5/2011
• BA , Pepperdine Univ, 12/2008