A&A NEWS

Julianna Martin ’26 Awarded Martin A. Dale ’53 Fellowship

A&A Practice of Art alumna Julianna “Jules” Martin ’26 has been awarded the Martin A. Dale ’53 Fellowship. 

The Dale Fellowship, created by 1953 Princeton alumnus Martin Dale, provides a $40,000 grant to spend a year on “an independent project of extraordinary merit that will widen the recipient’s experience of the world and significantly enhance the student’s personal growth and intellectual development.”

Drawing on her senior thesis Sites of Erosion, Martin is elaborating her experimental photography methods in her Dale project, “Slow Witness: A Photographic Journey Through the Tahoe Basin Watershed.” Beginning this summer, Martin is producing a collection of analog photographs from the watershed of the 120-mile-long Truckee River near her hometown of Truckee, California.

“My experimental photography methods center water as both subject and material agent,” Martin wrote in her Dale application essay. “I want to walk the river’s complete path with a camera, using water from each section to alter film and prints — letting the landscape write itself onto photographs through contact, erosion, and gradual marking.”

Professor Basile Baudez expects Martin's project to “transform how we think about the West, our impact on nature, and how the photographic medium can reveal new ways of seeing and understanding water and landscape.”

Julianna Martin '26's Dale Fellowship award

Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann Embarks on Lecture Tour in China

Professor Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann embarked on an extensive academic lecture tour across Southwest China over the fall break, focusing on global art discourse and methodology. At Chongqing’s Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts—one of China's premier art academies—he accepted an honorific appointment as Academic Advisor, a role involving active institutional collaboration. The ceremony also celebrated the publication of the 2025 Chinese translation of his landmark 2004 book, Toward a Geography of Art (艺术地理学). Following the ceremony, Kaufmann’s presentations anchored a rigorous problematization of historical methodologies. He delivered a keynote address, "From the Geography of Art to Global Art History," followed by an afternoon introductory lecture, "On Method in Art Geography." This second talk served as the catalyst for a collaborative Round Table Symposium on "Art, Science and Global Cultural Exchange," which featured presentations by five other distinguished professors and an engaging open discussion. His tour also featured a specialized lecture at Sichuan University in Chengdu, and culminated back in Chongqing at the International Teaching Exchange Forum, where he addressed the timely topic of "Change and Continuity in Art and Humanities Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence."

Between his university commitments, Kaufmann dedicated time to exploring regional museums and cultural treasures, including the ancient Sanxingdui site and the breathtaking Dazu rock carvings. The trip drew vibrant engagement, bridging historical traditions with contemporary global perspectives. Reflecting on the tour, Kaufmann noted, "The discussions were very stimulating and high-level and I had a lot of good questions," adding "the sites were fabulous."

Photos courtesy of Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

Cary Liu Examines the Priority of Time and Timeliness in the History of Chinese Architecture

By Changmook Song, A&A Graduate Student

Across two lectures this week, Dr. Cary Y. Liu, Princeton University Art Museum Curator of Asian Art, emeritus, examined the priority of time over space in premodern Chinese architectural practice. By laying out materials ranging from astronomical observations and ritual prescriptions to imperial building projects, he traced how Chinese architecture participated in a larger cosmological order of time.

The first lecture, “Measuring Time in the Practice of Chinese Architecture: Rulers and Calendars,” investigated the importance of time and timeliness in Chinese architectural practice. Dr. Liu began by explaining how nested cycles of time, including the sexagenary cycle, determined favorable moments for construction. These cycles and moments of convergence helped determine auspicious or inauspicious days for activities including construction. He then examined building rulers used to determine auspicious dimensions and the gnomon, which measured time and direction. Drawing on ancient texts and imperial building projects, he also showed how astronomical observations guided construction and connected architecture to the larger order of heaven, earth, and humans.

The following lecture, “Imprinting Time in the Practice of Chinese Architecture: Seals and Process,” shifted to understanding how time was embodied in construction. Dr. Liu used the seal as a metaphor for time, explaining how its individual elements were created in sequence but imprinted simultaneously through a single stamp. He then examined how building similarly followed a sequence of actions, each performed at an auspicious time determined through almanacs. Through these materials, he explained how the building process, like the act of stamping a seal, brought separate actions together into a unified whole.

By recovering the temporal dimensions of architectural practice in China, Dr. Liu’s lectures offered a fresh framework for reconsidering the role of time as an integral component of premodern Chinese architectural traditions.

Cary Liu presents "The Priority of Time and Timeliness in the History of Chinese Architecture" (Photos/ Jonah Vimont)

A&A Welcomes Dunhuang Scholar Qingquan Zou for the Academic Year

Qingquan Zou, professor in the School of Arts and Humanities at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (Guangzhou, China), specializes in Buddhist art, particularly art from the Buddhist cave sites in Dunhuang. He will be spending the academic year in the Department researching the impact of Dunhuang art in the 20th-century, focusing on the multiple waves of artists who traveled to Dunhuang to copy and reproduce the murals, photographic expeditions (especially the Lo Archive photographs), and modern and contemporary transformations of Dunhuang art. He has also published widely on topics ranging from Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) images of filial sons to donor portraits at Dunhuang and the movement of Chinese antiquities in the 20th century. He earned his Ph.D. in the History of Chinese Art from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (2009). In addition, he plays the Chinese zither!

PUBLICATIONS

Professor Fatima Quraishi: Palimpsests Past and Present The Sufis and Sultans of the Maklī Necropolis, 1380–1660

Fatima Quraishi's book Palimpsests Past and Present The Sufis and Sultans of the Maklī Necropolis, 1380–1660 has just been released by The University of North Carolina Press.

Established in the late fourteenth century in what is now Sindh Province, Pakistan, the Maklī necropolis grew over three centuries to a site of more than seventy monumental tombs and mosques, and hundreds, if not thousands, of graves. Maklī’s distinctive architecture sheds light on the intersection of transregional artistic styles through its accretional building practices by generations of craftspeople. Over its long history, Maklī became a site layered with multiple meanings as regional elites and everyday Sufi devotees sought to be buried in the shadow of saints—and as the living visited the necropolis to enact devotions and duty.

In Palimpsests Past and Present, Fatima Quraishi uses rarely consulted archives in Pakistan alongside close analysis of Maklī’s built environment to understand the site as an artistic and architectural palimpsest, mutually established by elite patronage and humble devotions. At Maklī, the passage of time merges with changes in religion and society to reveal the vibrant lives and afterlives of tombs integral to the communal life of surrounding areas. By studying what has long been treated as an interstitial space between Central Asia and India, Quraishi speaks to wider explorations of borderlands of the premodern past.

Quraishi won the 2026 Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. Prize in the Indian Humanities, granted by American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) for Palimpsests Past and Present. The committee praised the book's interdisciplinary depth and breadth, innovative and diverse methodology, and "deft intertwining of compelling close readings with a much larger, border-crossing and field-defining intervention into Indian and South Asian Studies."

Find it on the A&A Bookshelf

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Minor in the History of Art Open House

Join our Minor in the History of Art Open House and Make the ART museum your classroom!

Mon., Nov. 9, 4:30–5:30 pm

The Director of Undergraduate Studies and current A&A minors look forward to welcoming you!

History of Art Minor Open House

Call for Visual Resources Research Award Applications

Visual Resources Research Award, for late-stage undergraduates, doctoral students, recent doctorates, tenured and non-tenured faculty, and independent scholars, covers round-trip airfare (up to $1,500) and ground transportation to Princeton, as well as accommodation and meals for one week.

Visual Resources (VR) encourages applications from individuals whose interests, perspectives, and experiences align with Princeton’s commitment to building a diverse intellectual community, and who, through their research, will contribute to the diversity and excellence of Princeton’s academic community.

Please submit your application (the letter of interest with short project description and CV) to visres@princeton.edu.

VR Research Award: deadline November 1, 2026

Check Out Our Students’ Work at VIS Open Studios!

Photo/ Zohar Lavi-Hasson

Juniors and seniors in the Program in Visual Arts and Practice of Art Track in the Department of Art & Archaeology open their studios to the community. The student artists will be on hand to discuss with visitors their work and artistic processes in a wide range of media including photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, graphic design, film, and animation.

Tue., Nov. 17, 5:30–7 pm

185 Nassau Street

Open Studios November 17, 2026

DaIS AY26-27 Seed Grant Call

Data and Intelligent Systems (DaIS) is accepting proposals for AY26-27 seed grants, with a submission deadline of November 2, 2026.

Seed grants will fall into two budgetary buckets: $10,000-$30,000 and $30,000-$60,000. They will be granted in late January or early February 2027 and must be used by June 30, 2028.

The grants will be reviewed and awarded in the following categories:

• Data-Driven Social Science: innovative approaches to the study of human behavior and society, including new methodologies, technical advances, or novel applications of existing methods
• PICSciE: computational simulation, modeling, and analysis for scientific discovery and technology development through interdisciplinary research and collaboration
• Large AI models: the use of large AI models to further research in academic disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering
• Natural and Artificial Minds: the intersection of cognitive science and artificial intelligence, including psychology, computer science, philosophy,neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, and related disciplines
• AI for Invention: AI-enabled applications for accelerating invention in engineering disciplines
• AI Alignment and Safety: AI systems remaining consistent with human values and intentions    
• Societal AI: the emergent real-world impacts and implications of AI in our social institutions

DaIS Seed Grant: deadline November 2, 2026

2026-27 Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT)

Hosted by the Princeton Graduate School, 3MT is an internationally recognized platform for graduate students to showcase their research and strengthen their ability to communicate with general audiences. Participants have just three minutes to communicate the stakes of their research using a single slide. Culminating in the finalists’ presentations on March 2, the competition will award up to $1,500 to this year’s winners. 

Training Sessions:

Why Your Research Matters: Communicating Beyond Your Discipline

Nov. 3, 12–1:30 pm

Public Speaking

Nov. 16, 12–1:30 pm

Co-sponsored by the Princeton Humanities Initiative, the Center on Science and Technology, and the School of Engineering.

2026-27 Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT)

Humanities and Beyond: Council Funding Information Session

Join Humanities Council Chair Esther Schor (English) for an overview of funding opportunities offered in 2026-27, including Magic Grants for Innovation, Humanities Project Grants, Team Teaching Grants, and more. Faculty who have received grants in the past will also share insights into crafting proposals, and Council staff will answer questions about the application process. Visit our funding website for more information on eligibility and deadlines.

Mon, Nov. 9, 12–1:15 pm

16 Joseph Henry House

Humanities Council Funding

Call for Center for Digital Humanities Transcribe Lab Fellows

The Center for Digital Humanities is pleased to announce the launch of Transcribe Lab, a collaborative space for converting digital images of handwritten, manuscript, historical or cultural heritage documents into machine-readable texts.

Princeton faculty from any discipline are invited to propose projects in any language(s) or script(s), regardless of the size of the corpus or collection. Graduate students may apply as a co-leads with a faculty member. The deadline is Sunday, November 15, 11:59 pm ET.

CDH Transcribe Lab Fellowship: deadline November 15, 2026

2027-28 PUL Special Collections Research Grants

Princeton University Library Special Collections Research Grants Program – Application deadline January 13, 2027

The Friends of the Princeton University Library Research Grants Program, funded by the Friends of PUL, is now accepting applications through noon on January 13, 2027, with grants of up to $6,000, plus travel expenses.

Applications are also being accepted for the “Will Noel Innovative Cultural Heritage Research Grant”– specifically for cultural heritage professionals to work with PUL’s Special and Distinctive Collections and the Library IT Digital Studio’s specialized photographic equipment to gain new insights into our collective past. 

Awarded to short-term research projects lasting between two and four weeks, the grants aim to promote scholarly use of the Library’s special collections. Research projects are focused on scholarly use of archives, manuscripts, rare books, and other rare and unique holdings of PUL.



Special Collections Research Grants: deadline January 13, 2027