Emma Oslé, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History and former lecturer in the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies, recently earned the Big 10 Academic Alliance/Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in American Art with the Smithsonian Museum. The Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP) offers the Big Ten Academic Alliance Smithsonian Fellowship to doctoral candidates who are enrolled in one of the Big Ten Academic Alliance universities. The specific fellowship Oslé will be part of is also funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art and admits students whose research is in the field of American Art.
As a studio art and art history major during her undergraduate years, Oslé found a passion for research when working on her senior thesis. This passion led her to do her graduate studies at Rutgers, where she also taught classes in art history, Latino art, and more. One class, "Latinx Art and Representation in Visual Media", which was designed by Oslé herself, takes an interdisciplinary approach in the exploration of the history of Latinx representation in media and the history of art created by Latinx communities in the United States.
Speaking with The Daily Targum, Oslé explains that one of the benefits of this fellowship is the "several collections at the Archives of American Art, which is just downstairs from the Research and Scholars Center, and I'm able to go there during my fellowship and engage with the archives".
This fellowship is an incredible achievement and the Rutgers community eagerly awaits to see and hear more about Olsé's research during this program.