"Individuality and Collectivism in the Artistic Practice of the St. Petersburg Artel of Artists”

In the fall of 1863, fourteen students who were soon to graduate from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg petitioned the administrative authorities for the right to freely choose the subject for that year’s Gold Medal competition. Their request was denied and the students withdrew from the Academy and formed a cooperative association known as the St. Petersburg Artel of Artists, a commune of democratically-minded artists spearheaded by the painter Ivan Kramskoy. This article explores both the ideals of collectivism that came to grip Russia in the 1860s and the problems that arose from such relational dynamics as individuals within the group sought to establish their own distinct voices.
"Cultural Bilingualism in 18th-Century Russian Portraiture"

This essay centers on portraits of members of the Golitsyn and Chernyshëv families made over the course of the eighteenth century. As the state implemented a top-down Europeanization of the narrow upper class in this period, portraiture became a key tool in showing one’s ability to conform to the new ideals of Russian citizenship through the adoption of fundamental social graces.  Beneath this surface veneer, however, noblemen and women of the Petrine generation shared an overwrought hybrid cultural identity. It was left to succeeding generations to become truly culturally bilingual by internalizing the mindsets and beliefs that had originally been imposed externally by decree.
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"Horizontal Art History: Critiquing Modernist Geographies"

This essay explores the potential that transnational case studies might have for undermining the hierarchical, vertical discourse which has so long characterized the study of Western European Art. Focusing on a single year in artistic production – 1915 – the essay puts in dialogue artworks produced in Russia, France, the Netherlands, and Austria in that year in order to experiment with flattening the hegemony of the “Western” narrative by restoring the authority of a single, unique historical moment.
"Social Media in the Art History Classroom"
(co-authored with Lauren Jimerson)

This essay for the new Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities and Art History explores the ways social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram can be used in teaching art history. Utilizing these technologies has the potential to increase student engagement, stimulate interest in the subject matter, and embolden students to see art and culture as a vital part of their daily lives. Faculty in art history, and related humanities fields, should strongly consider how platforms like these might allow us to better reach our students in an increasingly digital and data-driven world.