Graduate Students & Dissertation Committees

USC: Dissertation Director

  • Laura Kalba, History, “Outside the Lines: Color and the Color Revolution in 19th century France,” Director, defended Spring 2008; awarded three-year post-doc at George Mason; tenure-track position at Smith College. Associate Professor, 2016- Associate Professor, University of Minnesota.  2019-, book published with Penn State Press. Winner highest book award, CAA. Winner, Wylie Prize in French Studies.
  • Ryan Linkof, History, “The Tabloid Press in 20th Century Britain,” defended May 2011. Associate Curator, Photography Department, LACMA.; Curator, Lucas Museum, book published, Bloomsbury.
  • Brian Jacobson, Cinema, “Early Studios, Architecture and Technology,” defended May 2011. Winner SSRC, Fulbright, Chateaubriand. Prof. Visual Studies, Cal Tech; Asst. Prof. Cinema, TT,U Toronto. Winner SCMS Dissertation Prize. Book: Columbia UP.
  • Anca Lasc, Art History, “Designing Space: The French Private Interior Illustrated, 1852-1914,” defended May 2012. Assoc. Prof. of Art History, Pratt, three edited books and monograph, Manchester UP, 2018.
  • Catherine Clark, History, “Picturing Paris,” defended May 2012. Winner Chateaubriand,. TT French Studies, MIT, Fall 2013-, Associate Prof., 2017; tenured, 2019, winner, fellowship, IAS, Princeton. Book, Oxford UP. Winner, Wylie Prize, French Studies.
  • Mark Braude, History. “Spectacle and Speculation in Monaco, 1856-1956,”. Defended May 2013. Stanford Digital Humanities Post-doc, Winter 2014-2017. Winner, NEH Public Humanities Fellowship. Books Published, Simon and Schuster; Penguin Second Book on Napoleon. Thurd book on Kiki de Montparnasse.
  • Nadya Bair, Art History, “Magnum: The Decisive Network” May 2016. ACLS/Getty Post-doc; Mellon/ACLS Finishing Fellowship. Post-Doc, Ryerson, Toronto, Post-Doc, CCA, Post-Doc, Digital Humanities, Yale, 2017-18. ACLS/Getty Post-doc, 2018-2919; Several published articles. Book to appear UC Press, 2020. TT Job, Hamilton College, Art History. Winner, Prose Award, Best Nonfiction Book.
  • Kelly McCormick, History, UCLA, with William Marotti, Defended November 2019 “Japanese Cameras,” sixth year, Fulbright, Japan; Technology in Asia Fellowship. Article Prize., TT job, UBC, Vancouver, January 2020.
  • Jonathan Dentler, History,”The Wired Image”  Defended, May 2020 USC Digital Humanities Fellowship. USC Finishing Fellowship, 2-year Terra Foundation Post-Doc in Paris, Post-Doc, Institute for Photography, 2022-23.
  • Aaron Rich, Film, Cinema, “Picture Collections and the Cinematic Dispersion of Visual Knowledge,” Defended May 2020. Mellon Sawyer Fellow, Mellon Digital Humanities Grant.
  • Natalia Lauricella, Art History, “Collaborating in Color: Master Printers and the Avant-Garde in Belle Époque France. Defended April 2021. Fulbright; Chateaubriand Fellowship (declined). Defended, April 2021. Post-Doc, Stanford University, 2021-2023.
  • Isabel Wade, Art History, Defended May 2023. “Glossy Buildings, Planned Images: Architectural Photography across Contested Spaces in Los Angeles, 1940- 1980.” ACLS Luce Fellowship, 2020-2021, CCP Fellowship, Huntington Fellowship. USC two-year Dornsife Teaching Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2023-2025
  • Dina Murokh, Art History, co-director, Defended May 2023“Picture Galleries in 19thc. Century America” Art History, SAAM Fellowship.

Current ABD’s: Director

  • Myles Little, Art History, Expected December 2023, “Blackout: Photography, Darkness and New York City, 1965-1985.”
  • Max Bohner, Art History, co-advisor, Humboldt University, Berlin. Expected December 2023, “Twilight Aesthetics: Queer Visual Culture in the United States, 1945-1969.”

Current Students in Coursework:

USC: Dissertation Committees Since 2007:

  • Natalie Roseau, Urbanism, Ecole des Ponts et Chausées, Paris, Member of the Jury, “La culture aérienne,” Fall 2007.
  • Liz Willis-Tropea, History, “Glamour Photography,” defended Fall 2007.
  • Sandra Zalman, Art History, “Surrealism and Its Popular Reception,” defended Fall 2008. Tenure-track job, University of Houston. ACLS Post-Doc, 12-13.
  • Megan Kendrick, History, “Hotels in LA,” defended Fall 2008.
  • Amy Von Lintel, Art History, “Illustrated Art Histories,” defended 2010. Tenured West Texas.
  • Jennifer Miller, Art History, “Vaudeville and American Art,” defended 2010.
  • James Cahill, Cinema, “Painlevé” defended 2011. TT U of Toronto.
  • Jason Hill, Art History, “PM, Reporting and Visual Evidence,” defended 2011. Terra Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Paris, Fellow, NY Historical Society Associate Prof. Art History, U of Delaware.
  • Jennifer Black, History, “Advertising in Nineteenth Century US,” defended, 2013. TT Position, Misericordia College.
  • Curtis Fletcher, History, “Art and Technology in Post-War America,” defended 2013. Director, Scalar Multi-Media Authoring Project.
  • Matthew Fox-Amato, History, “Photography, Slavery and Anti-Slavery in 19th century America,” defended 2013. USC VRSI Postdoc. Interdisciplinary Post-doc, Wash U, Fall 2014. Tenured, University of Idaho.
  • Katherine Wells, Art History, “Tapestries and The Renovation of the Decorative Arts,” defended, Spring 2014, TT Art History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
  • Luci Marzola, Cinema, “Technology in Hollywood,” defended, 2016. USC post-doctoral fellow. NTT Teaching in LA.
  • Kohki Watahbe, Cinema, “Landscape in Early Cinema” Defended Fall 2018.
  • Marie-Madeleine Ozdoba, 2019, Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris
  • Robert Gordon-Fogelson, “Total Design” Fall 2021, Art History, USC.
  • Céline Arzatian, “Fashion and Cinema” Winter 2023, University of Paris 3, The Sorbonne Nouvelle.
  • Grace Converse, “Art, Theosophy and the Making of Occult California” Art History, May 2023
  • Steven Samols, “Jews and Photojournalism in Vienna,” History, May 2023.

Post-Doctoral Supervisions:

  • Daniela Bleichmar, EMSI-VSRI Post-Doc, 2004
  • Victoria Cain, VSRI-Shoah Foundation Post-Doc, 2007-2009
  • Ryan Linkof, 2008, VSRI Post-Doc
  • Matt Amato, 2012, VSRI Post-Doc
  • Justin Underhill, with Digital Humanities, 2012-2014
  • Gina Greene, Provost’s Post-Doctoral Fellows, 2013-2015
  • Allan Doyle, Mellon Sawyer Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2016-2017
  • Rhae Lynn Barnes, USC Society of Fellows, 2016-2017
  • Liying Sun, with Digital Humanities, 2016-2018
  • John Blakinger, USC Society of Fellows, 2016-2018
  • Aaron Wile, USC Society of Fellows, 2017-2019
  • Ellen MacFarlane, VSRI Post-Doc in Narrative Arts, 2018-2020

Foreign Post-Docs, VSRI:

  • Estelle Blaschke, VSRI and Swiss Foundation, Lausanne, Spring 2017
  • Sonsoles Barbosa, Fulbright and Getty, University of the Balearic Islands, Summer 2016, 2017
  • Filip Lipinski, University of Poznan, Poland, Summer 2019
  • Ori Levin, Israeli Scientific Foundation, 2019-2020

American University: Doctoral Students- Director:

  • Moira Maguire, Cherished Equally? Precarious Childhood in Independent Ireland published by Manchester UP, 2010. Tenured Assoc. Prof. at University of Arkansas, Little Rock.
  • Brett Abrams: “Lavender Hollywood: Gay Culture and the Foundation of Hollywood.”

American University: Doctoral Students- Committee:

  • Debby Doyle, “Atlantic City and the American Resort.”  Now employed at the AHA.

Undergraduate Honors Theses:

  • Sammy Goldenberg, “The Limits of the Jet Age at LAX,” Fall 2010.
  • Katie Gibelyou, “Making of Films and The Production of Film History” (Highest Honors), 2007-2008.
  • James Skee, “The Queen Mary Comes to Long Beach” (Highest Honors), PhD in History Department, UC Berkeley, 2015.