Room 10 Schedule
HFMA 215
Wednesday, April 15th, 2026
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In this archaeological research project, I investigate an enigmatic Japanese lacquerware vessel from the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, tentatively dated to the Edo-Meiji transition (1867-1868 CE). The object has been labelled as a sake server, but further examination reveals this theory needs to be tested and supported. This presentation covers a detailed description of the object, including an explanation of lacquer techniques and decorative motifs. Following this visual analysis, I will provide a careful comparative analysis of the suspected sake server with other known vessels of this type with the goal of revealing the true story behind the object.
Faculty Sponsors: Ann M. Nicgorski & Scott Pike
Discipline: Archaeology -
In this presentation, I will discuss the establishment of the Methodist Mission's Indian Manual Labor Training School (1841), and how it impacted the landscape Willamette University sits on today. To begin, I’ll provide historical context of the Methodists’ school and the natural environment before settlement. Then I will show how I used archaeological methods like GIS analysis and archival research to create maps from vegetation data and a historic map of Salem to identify geographic features that have been altered since the establishment of the Mission. The results of this project will benefit archaeologists’ further landscape reconstruction of the site.
Faculty Sponsors: Ann M. Nicgorski & Scott Pike
Discipline: Archaeology -
Naxos, the largest Cycladic Island in the Aegean Archipelago, was a major marble exporter during the Archaic period (600-480 BCE), including colossal, partially finished kouros statues. In this project, I hope to determine how these kouroi were transported from the mountain-top quarries to the coast. My methods include using Unpersoned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to generate high-resolution 3D models and LiDAR point clouds, which can identify and analyze potential methods of exporting these statues from the quarry. My study aims to situate these unfinished kouroi and quarries within an archaeological context and add new information to the record of Naxos.
Faculty Sponsors: Ann M. Nicgorski & Scott Pike
Discipline: Archaeology -
In this talk, I will discuss the applications of geophysical surveying techniques in identifying archaeological features in Puebloan sites. First, I will give an overview of the past research that has been done at two major sites, the Chetro Ketl Field in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and the Dillard Site in Southwest Colorado. I will explain the research conducted at both sites, as well as what questions could be answered by future geophysical surveys. Finally, I will use the findings from these sites to propose future geophysical survey techniques, methods, and potential sites where these could be used.
Faculty Sponsors: Ann M. Nicgorski & Scott Pike
Discipline: Archaeology -
In this presentation, I will introduce two ceramic flutes in the Tupper collection at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. These flutes originate from the Colima culture (ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE) and were probably discovered in the original shaft tomb site. I will make an in-depth visual analysis of the artifacts’ attributes, including material content, decoration, and physical dimensions. Then, I will use post-processual archaeological theory to interpret who made them, how, and why, with the aim of capturing the elusive dimension of music in archaeological study of West Mexico’s Colima.
Faculty Sponsors: Ann M. Nicgorski & Scott Pike
Discipline: Archaeology -
The Ness of Brodgar, on Mainland Orkney, Scotland, is a large Neolithic complex comprising multiple multi‑phase monumental stone structures dating from ca. 3500–2400 BCE. To investigate how the structures were used over time, a geoarchaeological team investigated floor chemistry of each structure using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF). Floors were analyzed using a 50-cm sampling-grid. Spatial variation for each analyzed element was mapped in RStudio. Data is visualized through an R Shiny application, producing high‑resolution elemental heat maps. The data was faceted by phase to examine the differences of relative concentration between the cultural phases.
Faculty Sponsors: Scott Pike & Heather Kitada Smalley
Discipline: Archaeology -
The Archaic Period (ca. 650–480 BCE) marked a transformative era for the Greek world, characterized by rapid population growth, political restructuring, and the emergence of monumental sculpture. Central to this artistic evolution was the kouros: a nude and polyvalent male figure. This thesis addresses the gap in the nuanced relationship between male sexuality and masculinity with a comparative study of the New York Kouros, Cleobis and Biton Kourai, and the Anavyssos Kouros. By analyzing these specific examples, this research investigates how the evolving kouros type functioned as a visual vessel for constructing and negotiating Archaic male sexuality and masculinity.
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Abigail Susik
Discipline: Art History -
The foliate head motif, often called the “Green Man,” bloomed into popular culture in the mid-20th century and has since been associated with themes of life, renewal, and interpreted as a sign of humanity’s relationship with the environment. In broader culture, the motif is often tied to European folklore, which overshadow its true origins Greco-Roman mythological artistic motif. This thesis examines the transformation of the foliate head from its roots as a 1st-century CE pagan motif, through its development as a uniquely Christian iconography, and attempts to discover how interpretations of the motif’s meaning have changed over time.
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Abigail Susik
Discipline: Art History -
In 1790, amidst intense upheaval triggered by the French Revolution, artist Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) was contracted by the National Convention to create a monumental painting of the Tennis Court Oath, a pledge made amongst revolutionaries to not vacate Versailles until they created a constitution. Although abandoned in 1792, David’s work still ignites flames of revolutionary passion, despite centuries of differences. In this thesis, I will focus on David’s incomplete work, Le Serment du Jeu de Paume, examining the sketch through the lens of reception theory, seeking to explore how the image’s posing, iconography, and theatricality continue to arouse revolutionary zeal.
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Abigail Susik
Discipline: Art History -
The American-French painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) utilizes japonisme to supplement her interests in depicting womanhood and maternité, most notably in a set of ten drypoint-aquatint color prints exhibited in 1891. In particular, she employs the work of ukiyo-e printmaker Kitagawa Utamaro (c. 1753-1890) and his prints of women as a distinct influence. In this thesis, I address Cassatt’s artistic “relationship” with Kitagawa Utamaro through the use of multiple case studies from her 1891 set. Doing so explores how Cassatt harnesses the work of Utamaro’s studies of Japanese femininity to interpret different aspects of French womanhood.
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Abigail Susik
Discipline: Art History -
In the early 1920s, Brazilian artists such as Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973) began exploring how Brazil contributed to both international Modernism and national cultural production. In this thesis, I argue that Tarsila do Amaral crafts a new Brazilian national identity, Brasilidade, by culturally cannibalizing European-inspired avant-garde techniques as well as Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian representations in an attempt to portray a diverse racial, religious, and decolonial identity of Brazil, particularly in A Negra (1923), Abaporu (1928), and Anthropofagia (1928). My thesis uses a decolonial approach to examine how Tarsila and other Brazilian artists reconciled with their colonial history.
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Abigail Susik
Discipline: Art History -
Since the rediscovery of Claude Cahun’s (1894-1954) self-portraits in the 1980s, critics and scholars have remarked upon the striking modernity of Cahun’s gender expression– they wore their hair shaved, sometimes dyed it green or pink, and despite being active in the lesbian scenes of Paris in the 1920s, did not clothe themself in the popular uniform of suits and slicked-back hairstyles. Instead, I will argue, throughout their oeuvre, Cahun uses fluid gender expression as a tool to question structures of womanhood, embody ever-shifting theatrical personas, or to escape persecution amidst anti-Nazi political revolt.
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Abigail Susik
Discipline: Art History