News

The department of Comparative Cultural awards our first Clara M. Lovett Humanities in Action grants this month. The Clara M. Lovett Humanities in Action Fund supports Public Humanities programming that is community focused and advances the professional development of students. Thanks to a generous grant from past NAU president Dr. Clara Lovett (1993-2001), we will award two annual grants to teams comprised of NAU faculty and students who are engaged in community-based Public Humanities projects. Two grants for up to…

CCS celebrated our spring 2023 Outstanding Senior Katherine Leddy, our scholarship winners Joce Dolezal (Lakeview United Methodist Scholarship), Kieran McKinney (Lakeview United Methodist Scholarship), and Morgan Wood (Lois Kellogg Duncan Scholarship and the Gary Kane Study Abroad Scholarship), and our junior book prize winners Joce Dolezal (Public Humanities, Lee Wiechmann (Museum Studies), and Mckenzi Monical (Art History) at our end of semester reception on May 11! Learn more about CCS awards and scholarships at www.nau.edu/ccs/resources/scholarships. Congratulations to all of our…

Congratulations to Katherine Leddy! CCS recognized Katherine's achievements by awarding her Outstanding Senior for spring 2023! Katherine will graduate this week with a major in Comparative Cultural Studies with an art history emphasis and a second major in Anthropology. She will begin the graduate program in Archaeology at NAU this fall and continue to work at the Clara M. Lovett Art Museum on campus. Katherine originally wanted to major in nursing until she enrolled in ARH 143 Arts of Asia.…

We are proud of our graduating seniors in CCS minors for spring 2023! We chose to feature a few of our students in our minor programs as the semester ends. Shannon Dixon Shannon Dixon will graduate this week with a degree in Strategic Communication with an emphasis in Advertising, a minor in Art History, and a certificate in Marketing and would like to work at an advertising or marketing firm. Her favorite class was CCS 408 Internship. Shannon interned for…

Congratulations to CCS undergraduate student Morgan Wood, who will receive the Gary Kane Study Abroad Scholarship offered by the department of Comparative Cultural Studies! Morgan is a major in Comparative Cultural Studies with a minor in Museum Studies. Morgan will study abroad next year at Aix-Marseille University in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France.  Morgan writes "The interdisciplinarity of CCS along with my minor in museum studies allows me to consider a wide variety of paths in life. This time abroad…

We are proud of our graduating seniors for the BIS in Humanities students for spring 2023! We chose to feature a few of our students in the program as the semester ends. Gladys Ripley Gladys Ripley will graduate this week in the program and intends to apply to law school in the future. She is especially proud of completing her degree at age 44. Gladys writes of what she learned in the program, "I believe a more thorough understanding of…

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Humanities Dr. Marco Cabrera Geserick! He will become the next coordinator of Latin American Studies in fall 2023. He is a specialist in Latin American history and cultural history. His research explores issues of memory and history in nineteenth-century U.S. and Latin America.

Congratulations to CCS alum Emily Morgan! Emily will be attending the Master of Library and Information Science graduate program at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in fall 2023. She also receive an assistantship to work in the UIUC Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library, where she will gain additional experience in cataloguing, reference and collection development. Emily graduated from NAU with dual degrees in English and Comparative Cultural Studies (emphasis in the Comparative Study of Religions) and a…

Dr. Emily Lawhead graduated from NAU in 2016 with a BA in Comparative Cultural Studies with dual emphases in Art History and Asian Studies and minors in Japanese and Museum Studies. She currently serves as the Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. She recently published the article "Continuity: Sharing Space in teamLab’s Digital Ecosystems." for the journal Arts in 2023. Read about the immersive 2021 exhibition "teamLAB: Continuity" at the Asian Art Museum…

Congratulations to Professor of Art History Dr. Alexandra Carpino! She will become the Associate Dean for Student and Faculty Success for the College of Arts & Letters in summer 2023. She previously held the position during this academic year as interim. 

Assistant Teaching Professor of Humanities Dr. Kent Linthicum recently received an award and a fellowship to support completion of his book project Crowning Coal: Slavery, Fossil Fuels, and Literature 1755–1865. The Office of the Vice President for Research presented Dr. Linthicum the Scholarly and Creativity Award and the College of Arts & Letters awarded him an inaugural Arts and Humanities Fellowship.       

Congratulations to CCS major (emphasis in Art History) Katherine Leddy! She recently presented a paper entitled “Wartime Trauma in Greek Vase Painting: The Suicide of Ajax” in April at the 2023 SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium. This symposium is now in its fifth year, and it has become the largest event of its kind in the world with roughly 150 speakers attending collegiate institutions located around the world. Katherine will also present her independent study research in poster form…

Congratulations to CCS undergraduate student Joce Dolezal, who will receive the Lakeview United Methodist Church scholarship offered by the department of Comparative Cultural Studies! Joce is a major in Comparative Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Public Humanities and a minor in Museum Studies. Joce writes "Majoring in Comparative Cultural Studies with an emphasis in public humanities was an opportunity which felt like it fell into my lap my freshman year when I found myself feeling unsatisfied in my original…

Congratulations to CCS undergraduate student Kieran McKinney, who will receive the Lakeview United Methodist Church scholarship offered by the department of Comparative Cultural Studies! Kieran is in the Asian Studies-Integrated Global Program and will graduate with two degrees, one in Asian Studies with a Japanese emphasis and another in Applied Computer Science. Kieran writes "my favorite class so far would definitely have to be ARH 270 Arts of Japan with Dr. Gulacsi" and despite the challenge of two rigorous majors,…

Congratulations to all of our CCS undergraduate students at the 2023 NAU Undergraduate Symposium! CCS had 6 poster presentations and 2 oral presentations at this year's symposium. View more images from the symposium on our social media sites. Rachel Clarges, Major in Secondary Education (English) with a minor in Chinese "The Buddha's Word in Motion: The Early Translation Process of Buddhist Texts from Sanskrit to Chinese" HUM 382 Silk Road Art Jake Cohen, Major in Comparative Cultural Studies with a Museum…

Assistant Professor in the Comparative Study of Religions Dr. Dunja Jelesijevic recently received a NAU summer research grant to support her research on themes in Japanese horror for a future article. 

Join CCS at the NAU Undergraduate Symposium for posters and presentations on Friday April 28!  

The NAU Review recently featured an article on Ramadan by CCS Assistant Teaching Professor in the Comparative Study of Religions and Humanities Dr. Diana Coleman. Read the article "Eid Mubarak: Celebrating Eid al Fitr, the end of Ramadan, Islam's holy month" here.

Congratulations to CCS Museum Studies alum Jordan Dyer (B.A. in English with minors in Museum Studies and Anthropology and an undergraduate certificate in Linguistics, 2019) on her recent appointment to the Library of Congress as a Digital Conversion Technician in January 2023! Jordan completed her Master of Library & Information Science degree with a focus on Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Maryland in 2022. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress.

Congratulations to CCS alum Victoria Grant (B.A. in CCS with emphases in Asian Studies and a Comparative Study of Religions, 2019)! Victoria was recently accepted to the multidisciplinary M.A. in East Asian Studies program at Yale University and will begin graduate study in fall 2023.

CCS Professor of Art History and Asian Studies Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulácsi has released the catalogue of her Manichaean Art in Berlin Collections (Breplos 2001), in Persian translation by Sonia Mirzaie (Iranian Academy of Arts 2023). The 2001 publication addressed Manichean artwork and illuminated pieces from Turfan (in East Central Asia)  found in two German institutions. Learn more in Global Art Magazine.

The NAU Review interviewed CCS Comparative Study of Religions faculty members Dr. Jason BeDuhn and Dr. Carli Anderson for their April 5, 2023 article "What you didn't know you didn't know about Easter." Dr. BeDuhn and Dr. Anderson answer questions about Easter and Passover in the article.

The department of Comparative Cultural Studies announces our first application cycle for the Clara M. Lovett Humanities in Action Fund, a grant to support public humanities programming that advances the professional development of students by engaging them in community-facing projects. We will award two Humanities in Action grants of up to $2000 each to teams comprised of humanities and arts faculty and students. Apply today at https://bit.ly/huminactiongrant. Deadline to apply is April 17, 2023.  

Accelerate your degree with an online comparative study of religions course this summer!  

The NAU Review featured CCS Professor of Humanities Dr. Gioia Woods for International Women's Day earlier this month as part of their article on women in the past and present on campus and beyond. Read the article here.

Accelerate your degree with an online humanities course this summer!

Join the department of Comparative Cultural Studies on March 23 at 6 p.m. in LA 120 for the presentation by Dr. Todd Cleveland (University of Arkansas) "Following the Ball: The Migration of African Soccer Players across the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1949-1975." Free and open to the public. For information about visitor parking, go to https://in.nau.edu/university-transit-services/guest-parking/. 

Join us on Monday for Let's Anime!, a film screening and lecture by Dr. Dunja Jelesijevic at 6:30 p.m. in LA 136. Learn more about this new series in the recent article by the NAU Review.      

Apply today for the $5000 Gary Kane Comparative Cultural Studies Study Abroad Scholarship! Learn more here.

Congratulations to CCS Professor of Art History and Asian Studies Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulácsi on her recent invitation to join the membership of the prestigious Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University! Dr. Gulácsi was awarded membership at the Institute for Advanced Studies for spring 2024. While at Princeton, she will join the School of Historical Studies for the semester as she works on her sabbatical research project, "Manichaean Artifacts at Dunhuang Cave 17 and the 'Book Cemeteries’ of Buddhist Archeological…

Join the Martin-Springer Institute on Thursday March 2 for the opening reception for the exhibit Gino Parin and the Holocaust at the Clara M. Lovett Art Museum at NAU! CCS Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions and Director of the Martin-Springer Institute Dr. Bjorn Krondorfer and CCS Professor of Art History Dr. Alexandra Carpino led many CCS major and minor students on this multi-year project. This year, CCS students on the team included Museum Studies minors Elizabeth White, Alexis…

Congratulations to CCS Museum Studies Alum Terra Smith, M.A. (B.S. History Honors, Museum Studies minor 2018)! In January 2023, Terra became the Associate Registrar at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Prior to this position, Terra worked at MIM in guest services for several years as well as served as a curatorial intern for the exhibit "Echoes of Loss" at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff. After graduating with honors from NAU, Terra completed a Master of…

Rescheduled event! Comparative Cultural Studies presents "Let's Anime," a bi-annual series featuring a free anime film screening with a lecture.  Join us for our first film,  Astro Boy (Osamu Tezuka, 1963) with discussion by Assistant Professor in Asian Studies, Dr. Dunja Jelesijevic now on March 6 at 6:30 p.m. in LA 136.    

Congratulations to CCS alum Emily Lawhead (Art History and Asian Studies, minors in Japanese and Museum Studies, class of 2016)! In 2022, she received her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture with a certificate in New Media & Culture from the University of Oregon and became the Editorial Manager for Peer Review at DAJH,  a platform for digital art history and home of the International Journal for Digital Art History. In 2023, she was appointed Associate Curator at…

The department of Comparative Cultural Studies and the Asian Studies program present an evening lecture with Dr. Emily Lawhead, Associate Curator at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and CCS major (BA, 2016) on Feb 1 at 5:30 pm in LA 120. This is a great opportunity to learn more about a career in museums from an NAU CCS alum! This event is free and open to the public.  

Professor of Art History Dr. Alexandra Carpino recently organized the workshop Etruscology in America with Bridget Sandhoff (University of Nebraska Omaha) for the 23rd Annual Meeting for the Archaeological Institute of America in January 2023.  The workshop focused on Etruscology in American classrooms and field schools with the goal to provide a forum for exchange regarding the opportunities, challenges, and successes experienced by scholars whose teaching responsibilities frequently span multiple disciplines. Each panelist presented a case study that demonstrated how…

On Dec. 17, 2022, Associate Teaching Professor Dr. Becky Pratt-Sturges presented the final workshop of a three part series for community members at the Coconino Center for the Arts, "Creating Digital Archives for Personal Histories." This workshop introduced participants to digital archiving and to the webapplication platform Omeka.net for creating their own personal digital collections.

CCS Professor of Humanities Dr. Gioia Woods will be the host of a great event in February, Beyond Climate Breakdown: A Winter Evening of Stories on a Warming Planet, in the Cline Library Assembly Hall at 7 p.m. on Feb. 1.  Join us for an evening of climate stories with author Peter Friederici and NAU student storytellers. This event is free and open to the public. Learn more at https://fb.me/e/3h5jgiwLD.  

CCS students frequently intern with the Martin-Springer Institute under the direction of its director and CCS Professor Dr. Bjorn Krondorfer on public humanities projects and museum exhibitions. MSI presented their traveling exhibit "RESILIENCE: WOMEN IN FLAGSTAFF'S PAST AND PRESENT" in 2019 at Flagstaff City Hall as well as subsequent displays at other local venues. The exhibit resulted from a collaboration between the Arizona Historical Society and a NAU student research team under the directions of MSI and also received an…

Comparative Cultural Studies presents "Let's Anime," a bi-annual series featuring a free anime film screening with a lecture.  Join us for our first film,  Astro Boy (Osamu Tezuka, 1963) with discussion by Assistant Professor in Asian Studies, Dr. Dunja Jelesijevic on February 22 at 6:30 p.m. in LA 136.

On November 19, Assistant Teaching Professor Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman presented the first of a three part series of workshops for community members at the Coconino Center for the Arts, "Cultivating an Archive: Spoons, Cups, and Seeds." This workshop prepared participants to identify key family objects and photos for their digital archive. Dr. Coleman provided examples of how people speak through-and with-objects and photos, as grounding for the oral history and digital archive trainings that follow in sessions 2 and…

Near the end of the fall semester, students in the public humanities course HUM 382 The Maus Project presented their group research projects exploring themes from the class during the poster session and reception on Nov. 29 in Cline Library.  The department of Comparative Cultural Studies offered HUM 382 The Maus Project course after organizing a roundtable featuring faculty from across campus to examine the censorship of Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus in spring 2022. The class enrolled over 50…

Regents' Professor and Director of the Martin-Springer Institute Dr. Björn Krondorfer will moderate the panel Home & Identity: The Refugee Experience on refugees at the Coconino Center for the Arts on Thursday Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. To be a refugee is not an identity but the result of losing one’s home. In this vibrant panel discussion moderated by Dr. Krondorfer, panelists will share insights regarding the experiences of people who have become refugees, of people who are suffering from displacement…

Join HUM 382 The Maus Project students, speakers, and faculty for a presentation of student research posters and a reception to celebrate their accomplishments on Nov. 29 at 4:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Regents Gallery of Cline Library (second floor). For more information, contact Dr. Gioia Woods.

Join award winning director John DeGraaf and Diné artist Shonto Begay for the screening of Stewart Udall: The Politics of Beauty on Friday, November 18, at 4:00pm in LA 120. Former Interior Secretary Udall is remembered for his steadfast environmental advocacy and support for Native American self-determination. Event is free and open to the public. 

The NAU Review recently featured Regents' Professor Dr. Björn Krondorfer for International Religious Freedom Day, Oct. 27, 2022.  You can read Dr. Krondorfer's essay here.

Congratulations to CCS Museum Studies alum Sabrina Ortiz (2021, Anthropology major with a minor in Museum Studies)! She was accepted to the University of Glasgow Master of Sciences program in Information Management & Preservation with a focus in Archives and Records Management. Sabrina began the program in September.  

Spend 4 weeks in Tuscany learning about Etruscan, Medieval, and Renaissance Art with Professor of Art History Dr. Alexandra Carpino! Earn 6 credits of CCS 250/SA 302 and SA 201/SA 301. Learn more at https://nau.edu/ccs/resources/global-learning-opportunities/summer-short-term-faculty-led-programs/ and apply today at https://nau.edu/education-abroad/nau-led-programs/.

Join the Maus Project on Tuesday afternoon for a presentation by Dr. Bjorn Krondorfer, Regents’ Professor and Director of the Martin-Spring Institute in LA 120 at 4 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Spend 4 weeks in Tuscany learning about Etruscan, Medieval, and Renaissance Art with Professor of Art History Dr. Alexandra Carpino! Earn 6 credits of CCS 250/SA 302 and SA 201/SA 301. Learn more at https://nau.edu/ccs/resources/global-learning-opportunities/summer-short-term-faculty-led-programs/ and apply today at https://nau.edu/education-abroad/nau-led-programs/.

Congratulations to Dr. Jason BeDuhn, Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions, on his recent presentation at the 10th Quadrennial Manichaean Studies Conference in Aarhus, Denmark. He presented the paper "Is there a Manichaean ‘Christology’? The Dangers of Looking at Manichaeism through the Lens of Church History." Abstract: Manichaean Studies originated as an adjunct of the study of Church History and Christian Theology, and at first relied entirely on polemical sources from the “orthodox” vantage point, in which Manichaean data was…

Congratulations to Dr. Jason BeDuhn, Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions, on his recent publication "Ambivalent Beauty: Divine Transgendering in the 'Seduction of the Archons' and Elsewhere in Manichaean Myth" in Women in Western and Eastern Manichaeism (Leiden: Brill, 2022).

Congratulations to Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, Professor of Art History and Asian Studies, on her recent invited lecture at the tenth meeting of the International Association of Manichaean Studies in Aarhus in August 2022. The Carlsberg Research Foundation at the University of Aarhus, Aarhus (Denmark) sponsored the conference. Abstract: The Manichaean Prayer and Confession Book in the collection of the Asian Art Museum, Berlin (III 53)—also known as the BBB (M801a) after W. B. Henning’s pioneering study from 1937, “Ein manichäisches…

2022 Comparative Cultural Studies Scholarship Recipients Mckenzi Monical, Atkin Family Scholarship CCS major (B.A. in Comparative Cultural Studies, emphasis in Art History, Museum Studies minor) Mckenzi Monical has been awarded the Atkin Family scholarship. Mckenzi is from Joshua Tree, California. She is interested in a career in museums as a curator or an archivist. Mckenzi writes "I have thoroughly enjoyed every CCS and Art History course at NAU but I especially loved my CCS 250 class with Dr. Dunja Jelesijevic…

Professor of Art History Dr. Alexandra Carpino presented at the Archaeological Institute of America on March 27, 2022. Her talk was titled "Maternal Undress in Etruscan Mirror Iconography" and was part of the public lecture series in honor of Professor Larissa Bonfante by the Long Island chapter of the AIA.

Congratulations to Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, Professor of Art History and Asian Studies on her recent publication! She coauthored the book A Manichaean Prayer and Confession Book about the earliest known pre-Islamic Iranian manuscript, (Brepols 2022). The surviving 48-page portion the manuscript was once part of an Uygur-era (762-1124 CE) Manichaean liturgical book (written in Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian languages) issued in the form of an exquisite miniature paper codex, measuring 3.6 inches in height. It was discovered by German explorers in…

Congratulations to CCS major (emphasis in the Comparative Study of Religions) Dominic Counihan, our spring 2022 Outstanding Senior! Dominic previously received the Lakeview United Methodist Scholarship in 2020. He is from Tehachapi in California and also pursued a major in Military Science. Dominic chose to major in CCS out of his desire for promoting interpersonal relationships and says that he "wants everyone to feel accepted and respected, which is why I chose to study CCS- so that I could gain…

Professor of Art History and Asian Studies Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulácsi gave a public invited lecture at The Baker Museum in Naples, Florida titled “Zoroastrian, Buddhist, & Manichaean Art across the Silk Routes: Divine Guides of the After Life" on February 15, 2022. Her 75 minute talk focused on mediaeval Sogdian, Uygur, and Chinese images of the Maiden of Light, Jesus, and Avalokiteshvara and was part of the event Artis—Naples: Lifelong Learning Series on Asian Art and History (https://artisnaples.org/education/lifelong-learning).    

Lecturer in Public Humanities & Museum Studies and art historian Dr. Becky Pratt-Sturges presented the paper, "Flesh Rendered on Gilded Pages: Representations of Meat in Late Medieval Hunting Manuals" at the conference Popular Culture and the Deep Past 2022: The Experimental Archaeology of Medieval and Renaissance Food" at the Ohio State University Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies on February 11, 2022. Her paper explored the illuminations of the medieval ritual of unmaking, which involved the dismembering of the stag…

Professor of Humanities Dr. Gioia Woods gave a presentation for AZ Humanities’ “Climate Conversations” on Thursday, Feb. 10, entitled “Hippie modernism: literature, counterculture and transforming our natural world.” You can read more about the presentation and a view a recording here. 

Congratulations to CCS alum Holly Filsinger on her recent virtual lecture series "Experiencing Images: How the Visual Shapes Our World" at Illinois State University! She is currently in her second year of graduate school for an M.A. in Visual Culture at ISU. Holly graduated from NAU with a B.A. degree in Comparative Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Art History and a minor in Arts and Cultural Management in 2018. Learn more about the series here.

The Martin Springer Institute at NAU is seeking students with video/digital experience for Spring 2022. This could be a good opportunity for a student in need of internship credits for Public Humanities and/or Museum Studies. Click on this link for the flyer or view the image below.

Study abroad with CCS Professor of Humanities Dr. Gioia Woods this summer in Italy! Learn more about the program and apply here.

Comparative study of religions Faculty Dr. Diana Coleman and Dunja Jelesijevic brought the study of world religions into our local Flagstaff community this past week during a visit to Flagstaff High School. They gave a team lecture to 5 separate sections of World History students as they finish up their unit on World Religions. They encouraged the students (currently sophomores) to learn about the many reasons that NAU might be a good fit for them, talk about our new HSI…

Congratulations to BIS 90-30 Interdisciplinary Studies Humanities major Kayt Ludi, our Outstanding Senior for Comparative Cultural Studies in Fall 2021! Kayt moved to Arizona in 2010 from California and had already completed 96 credits at another institution in pursuit of an English degree but looked to transfer as many of the credits as possible. She found the answer in the statewide campus 90/30 programs offered by NAU, which are transfer-friendly fully online degrees in which students can transfer up to…

In fall 2020, CCS Professor of Humanities Dr. Gioia Woods embarked on an ambitious initiative, the NAU Plague Project, to bring students, faculty, and community together to read Albert Camus' 1947 novel The Plague and to participate in a wide variety of events, including panel presentations with local health professionals, collaborative reading and discussion between university students and area high schools, an interfaith panel discussion, and a workshop on how to collect pandemic stories to record and express life during…

Study abroad with CCS Professor of Humanities Dr. Gioia Woods this summer in Italy! Learn more about the program and apply here.

Study abroad in France next summer with CCS Faculty Affiliate and oral historian Dr. Steven Smith! Learn more about the program and apply here.

Congratulations to CCS alum Abigail Paternina (Art History emphasis, 2021) on her new position at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey!  Abigail is working closely with local New York and New Jersey artists as the Special Events Associate with the museum in preparation for an upcoming art auction in December. She will also be working with the curatorial department on programming.

Congratulations to Professor of Art History and Asian Studies Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulácsi on her recent publication, “A Latin Pictorial Witness to Tatian’s Diatessaron" in Vigiliae Christianae 75 in October 2021! Dr. Gulácsi examines the unsuspected Syriac Christian ties of a famous set of illustrations in a 6th-century Latin gospel book in England in the article. A sacred treasure of the Anglican Church, the book is the oldest surviving illustrated Latin gospel book and one of the oldest European books in existence. …

Congratulations to Lecturer Dr. Diana Coleman who presented on Monday, October 4th, at the 7th World Parliament of Science, Religion, and Philosophy hosted virtually by the MIT World Peace University in Pune, India. She was part of a panel titled “The Right to Peace- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Her talk put the aspirational UDHR and the treaties and human rights laws it has inspired-the Core Human Rights Instruments-in tension with the human cost and transgressions of the US…

Regents' Professor and CCS Professor in the Comparative Study of Religions Dr. Björn Krondorfer will lead the Arizona Jewish Historical Society virtual seminar German Family History and "Ordinary" Antisemitism on Oct. 1 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. MST (Arizona). The question of "ordinary antisemitism" will be explored through a personal story about the effects of the Holocaust and war memories in German society after 1945, especially as they are passed on generationally. Dr. Krondorfer's parents were 18 years old…

Professor of Art History Dr. Alexandra Carpino joined the Ithaca Bound Podcast in July to discuss the Etruscans, an ancient civilization on the Italian Peninsula. The Ithaca Bound Podcast is a daily podcast that explores history and mythology in the Mediterranean Basin and hosted by Andrew Schiestel. The podcast can be streamed here and on the podcast apps for Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions Dr. Dunja Jelesijevic on her recent publication, “Dangerous’ Beauty: Imagining the Other in the Noh Play Sesshōseki,” in Narratives Crossing Borders: Cultural Perspectives (2021, Dalarna University, Sweden)!

CCS alumni Gibran Villalobos (BA Art History, BS Public Relations 2007) was featured in the spring 2021 issue of  Pine Magazine, the alumni magazine for NAU, for his recognition as one of 14 inaugural Leaders for a New Chicago by the Field Foundation of Illinois in 2019. The award, granted in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation, recognizes a range of established and emerging leaders who help build an equitable community and play a major role in shaping the future of the city.…

Congratulations to CCS alumni Holly Filsinger on her recent success in procuring funding from the Illinois State University's Office of Research and Graduate Studies for a university sponsored lecture series focused on photography. The presentations will focus on the global impact of photography today and will feature speakers from a broad range of disciplines. Holly Filsinger graduated from NAU with a B.A. degree in Comparative Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Art History and a minor in Arts and Cultural…

The Association of Midwest Museums recently awarded Melissa a fellowship to work on the IMLS Funded Digital Empowerment Project. As part of the fellowship, Melissa will work in Live Broadcast Support Services and Online Forum Moderation Services as part of a larger project to organize capacity-building digital media and technology training programs as well as online resource libraries for small museums by the Association of Midwest Museums in partnership with the Council of Regional Associations. 

Adriana's project resulted from research developed through a Hooper Undergraduate Research Award (HURA). Adriana worked closely with CCS Lecturer in the Comparative Study of Religions Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman to apply for the award and during her research. Learn more about her project in the abstract below. Adriana is pursuing a major in Physics and Astrophysics with a minor in Mathematics at NAU.   Abstract: Before COVID, a collegiate-level introduction to world religions course would often be taught in large…

Please join us in congratulating CCS Professor Björn Krondorfer, who is now an esteemed Regents' Professor at NAU! Regents' professors have been awarded to less than 3% of the faculty at NAU at any one time and must be full professors recognized internationally and nationally for their work and demonstrate a record of exceptional achievements. Dr. Krondorfer is also the director of the Martin-Springer Institute and studies religion, gender and culture and post-Holocaust reconciliation; his scholarship helped define the field…

Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions and Director of the Martin-Springer Institute at NAU Dr. Björn Krondorfer was invited to write an epilogue on the issue of "empathy" for History, Trauma and Shame: Engaging the Past through Second Generation Dialogue, a book created by a team of German, Jewish, and South African psychotherapists and analysts and published in 2021. Dr. Krondorfer had been part of this team when conceiving the contour of this publication, in which all contributors reflect on…

Lecturer in the Comparative Study of Religions Dr. Diana Murtaugh Coleman gave a presentation, "Righteousness, Resentment, and Religion in this Time of Plague," on her research on state violence at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Western Region conference in March in the panel "American Religion and Racial Justice." Abstract: Drawing on literatures that address the historical and contemporary impact of state violence deployed against BIPOC and their communities,  I will analyze the strategies of resistance and…

Attention all CCS Jacks! Be sure to submit your application for one of the four scholarships offered by CCS soon! We offer 4 scholarships in CCS The Louise Kellogg Duncan Humanities Scholarship for students in the Public Humanities emphasis. Award: up to $800 The Lakeview United Methodist Scholarship for students in the Comparative Studies of Religions emphasis. Award: up to $1000 The Dennis H. Atkin Humanities Scholarship for juniors or seniors in CCS whose studies emphasize the arts, cultures, and/or…

CCS Lecturer in Public Humanities & Museum Studies Dr. Becky Pratt-Sturges is one of four faculty members recently recognized for exceptional teaching, research, and service contributions at NAU. Learn more about Dr. Pratt and the 3 other featured faculty here.  

Attention all CCS Jacks! Be sure to submit your application for one of the four scholarships offered by CCS soon! We offer 4 scholarships in CCS The Louise Kellogg Duncan Humanities Scholarship for students in the Public Humanities emphasis. Award: up to $800 The Lakeview United Methodist Scholarship for students in the Comparative Studies of Religions emphasis. Award: up to $1000 The Dennis H. Atkin Humanities Scholarship for juniors or seniors in CCS whose studies emphasize the arts, cultures, and/or…

April is National Poetry Month, and CCS wants your help in honoring Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Submit video or audio of yourself reading a Ferlinghetti poem or one of the works he published, translated or inspired. CCS Professor Dr. Gioia Woods is one of the coordinators of the project. Learn more here. Call for Participants On February 22, 2021, poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti died at age 101. As a public intellectual of enormous influence, Ferlinghetti’s impact on freedom of expression, avant…

Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions and Director of the Martin-Springer Institute at NAU Dr. Björn Krondorfer recently published the article, "Hunger: Testing Testimonial Limits in the Gray Zone" in the journal Humanities in the special issue The Literary Response to the Holocaust in January 2021.  Abstract: Literary descriptions of the multitude of experiences during the Holocaust and World War II face the dilemma of the (non)representability of extreme duress. This article delves into the testimonial remnants of two men in the…

On March 5, 5 PM [EST] - so 3 PM here in Arizona), Professor of Art History Dr. Alexandra Carpino will give a Zoom talk on the Etruscans' motherhood myths for the AIA's Baltimore Society - you are welcome to join! The link is available here: https://www.archaeological.org/.../lecture-5-tba-baltimore/  Normative concepts about gender were communicated in the Etruscan domestic sphere, specifically in aristocratic households, through narratives that decorated the reverses of engraved bronze mirrors. These artifacts were more than just expensive luxury…

Congratulations to Dr. Jen McLerran, Associate Professor of Art History, on her $86,000 grant from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative to plan an exhibition of Navajo weaving for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. ! Dr. McLerran, Navajo weaver D. Y. Begay, NMAI Curator Cecile Ganteaume, and conservator/curator Jeanne Brako will curate the exhibition. Launched by the Smithsonian Institute in 2018, the American Women’s History Initiative aims to research, educate, collect and disseminate the historical…

Congratulations to Dr. Gioia Woods, Professor of Humanities, on her AZ Humanities micro-grant to support the storytelling workshop Humanities in Action: Pandemic Stories! The micro-grant, awarded during the fall semester, supported a storytelling workshop designed to train community members to record one another's "pandemic stories." Panel participants included an archivist, a Navajo elder and storyteller, a journalist, and an historian. Through the workshop, the audience learned how to collect stories from their fellow community members--health care professionals, teachers, students, elders,…

Faculty News: CCS Professor Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulácsi will present the online lecture, Sideways-Oriented Images of Manichaean and Armenian Liturgical Books, on January 29, 2021. The event will be hosted by East of Byzantium, which is is a partnership between the Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art at Tufts University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA. This lecture will take place live on ZOOM, followed by…

Join the College of Arts & Letters for a conference exploring the impact of the pandemic in April 2021.   Resilience, Resistance, Renovation, and Rebirth Virtual Conference April 22, 23, 29, 30, 2021   What a year? SARS CoV-2 has hit us hard and forced us into a new normal. What is this normal now in the sciences, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics? What has happened to your work, research, and lives that would not have happened without the interruption…

Art History Professor Dr. Alexandra Carpino will present her research in Etruscan iconography at the Archaeological Institute of America's Annual Meeting on January 5, 2021. Her presentation, "Not a Taboo: Maternal Undress in Late Classical Etruscan Mirror Iconography," is part of the Nudity, Costume, and Gender in Etruscan Art Colloquium. Learn more about her presentation in the abstract below. The seminal work of Larissa Bonfante established that nudity not only signified a wide range of concepts in Etruscan iconography –…

Congratulations to Dr. Becky Pratt-Sturges on her chapter, "Visualizing the Medieval Park: Real Spaces and Imagined Places in Le livre de chasse," published this past fall in Reading the Natural World in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Perceptions of the Environment and Ecology (Brepols). From the publisher: From the late 600s to the early 1600s, medieval and early modern people engaged with nature in ways that shaped their sense of place, religion, literature, art, and more. Contributors to this volume…

Please join us in congratulating senior Megan Yurk on her award of Outstanding Senior for Fall 2020 for the department of Comparative Cultural Studies. Megan will graduate with an emphasis in Asian Studies and minors in Art History and the Comparative Cultural Study of Religions and served as a teaching assistant for REL 150 World Religions for several semesters. She was also previously awarded two departmental scholarships and received the Junior Book Prize for the Comparative Study of Religions and…

Please join CCS in congratulating Dr. Björn Krondorfer on the publication of his recent book, Unsettling Empathy: Working with Groups in Conflict, published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers in October. From the publisher: This book is an in-depth reflection and analysis on why and how unsettling empathy is a crucial component in reconciliatory processes. Located at the intersection of memory studies, reconciliation studies, and trauma studies, the book is at its core transdisciplinary, presenting a fresh perspective on how to…

In 2016, a box of photographs and memorabilia was donated to the Martin-Springer Institute of Northern Arizona University (NAU). The cluttered collection contained over 400 photographs and material items related to World War II in Europe. They belonged to U.S. Medical Corp. soldier, James P. Kuykendall. With little information about the contents of the collection and the photographer himself, the Institute created, funded, and supervised a team of NAU students to research and archive the collection.  Comparative Cultural Studies alumni…

During normal circumstances, our Outstanding Senior would be recognized at a banquet hosted by the College of Arts & Letters. We encourage you to recognize Emma's achievements on the CCS Facebook page since we cannot honor Emma at the annual banquet. We are very proud of Emma and all her accomplishments! The Public Humanities faculty nominated CCS major (emphasis in Public Humanities) Emma Parish for the CCS Outstanding Senior award for spring 2020. Dr. Gioia Woods writes "Emma exemplifies what…

Under normal circumstances, the department of Comparative Cultural Studies honors its scholarship recipients and winners of the Junior Book Prize in a ceremony during the spring semester. We are incredibly proud of our students and invite you to congratulate them on their awards on our department Facebook page. Dominic Counihan CCS major (emphasis Comparative Study of Religions) Dominic Counihan will receive the Lakeview United Methodist Scholarship. He is from Tehachapi in California and is also pursuing a major in Military…

Humanities West in San Francisco invited Dr. Carpino to speak at their 2020 series Etruscan Italy: Life and Afterlife. An internationally recognized expert in Etruscan art, Dr. Carpino will present "Quintessentially Etruscan: Art and Architecture from the Villanovan to the Etrusco-Roman Period" on February 29, 2020. Her talk will explore how analysis of Etruscan art reveals a remarkable Mediterranean culture. From the 9th century on, Etruscan and immigrant artists and craftsmen created temples, tombs, vases, jewelry and more for individuals eager to communicate…

It is never too early to decide to advance your degree progress by taking summer courses offered by Comparative Cultural Studies!

The NAU Aspirations website features the hopes, dreams, and goals of Lumberjack students, faculty, and staff. Comparative Cultural Studies Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions and director of the Martin Springer Institute Björn Krondorfer frequently provides students with opportunities to participate in public humanities projects focused on original research. During spring 2020, undergraduate and graduate students began archiving a box of World War II photos donated to the Martin Spring Institute under the direction of Dr. Krondorfer. Learn more…

It is never too early to decide to advance your degree progress by taking summer courses offered by Comparative Cultural Studies!       

Congratulations to CCS Art History alum Margaret Sheble, recipient of the 2020-2021 Helen Ann Mins Robbins Fellowship in Medieval Studies at Rochester University! Margaret Sheble is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Purdue University. Her dissertation project, “Arthurian Women and the Autonomy of Suicide,” argues that suicides in “Arthurian texts reflect wider concerns of ideal heteronormativity, gender roles, and one’s faithfulness to the Arthurian community.” Her investigation of medieval attitudes toward suicide incorporates texts and images from the English, French,…

Lecturer Dr. Becky Pratt-Sturges will be speaking at Arizona State University on October 8 on different kinds of careers for art historians as part of an invited alumni speaking series hosted by the School of Art in Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

Congratulations to Comparative Study of Religions Lecturer Dr. Diana Coleman on her recent article, "El Sur También Existe: Imagining futures" in Cultural Dynamics Volume 31 Issue 4!   Abstract: Guantánamo is infamous as a site of extra-legal detention in the wake of 9/11; more than a single site, it is part of a web of the United States’ militarization operating in the Global South. An area of the military base is now being revitalized as a new camp for climate…

Congratulations to Public Humanities Lecturer Dr. Patrick Pynes! He received the Arizona Forward 2018 Crescordia Award for Environmental Excellence for his collaborative work with the Northern Arizona Pollinator Habitat Initiative (NAPHI). NAPHI won the award for Site Development and Landscape for their innovative work in support of endangered pollinators, such as monarch butterflies, native bees, and honeybees. NAU staff, students, and faculty worked together for two years to support NAPHI's commitment to create, protect, and register pollinator habitats across northern…

Congratulations to art historian Dr. Tara Kohn! She received an honorable mention award for her Fall 2018 essay, "Elevated: Along the Fringes of 291 Fifth Avenue", in the Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art Panorama  in the competition for the Director's Essay Prize at the National Portrait Gallery.    

Congratulations to Public Humanities Professor Gioia Woods on her recent publication Left in the West: Literature, Culture, and Progressive Politics in the American West (University of Nevada Press, 2018)! In this edited collection, Dr. Gioia Woods and her contributors bring together histories, biographies, close readings, and theories about the literary and cultural Left in the American West—as it is distinct from the more often-theorized literary left in major eastern metropolitan centers. Left in the West expands our understanding of what constitutes the literary…