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Department ofArt and Art History

Bay Area Art History Research Symposium

Persia Liu ‘22 (Art History, Communication) represented Santa Clara University at the 2022 Bay Area Undergraduate Art History Research Symposium held at Mills College in Oakland, California. Undergraduate researchers from Mills College, San Jose State University, UC Davis, St. Mary’s College, Stanford University, Sonoma State University, the University of San Francisco, and UC Berkeley presented projects ranging from topics on Renaissance Italy to modern and contemporary East Asian art and film. Two Stanford University graduate student respondents provided commentary to link the themes of the projects together. Persia presented “Shah Abbas’ Safavid Silk Diplomacy,” which examines how the Safavid king Shah Abbas (1571-1629) used silk as a weapon against the Ottomans, as a tool in diplomacy with Venice, and as a staple of trade with the Dutch and the English.

Persia Liu

Organized in 2010 by the art history faculty at SCU, USF, Dominican College, and St. Mary’s, the Symposium has grown to include SJSU, SFSU, Mills College, Cal State East Bay, UC Davis, Cal State Sonoma, Mills College, UCB, and Stanford. The De Young Museum usually hosts the Symposium in San Francisco. This year 9 of the 13 participating schools were represented in the first symposium held since 2019 and the first to be held at Mills College.