2026 Bay Area UGRD Art History Symposium at SCU
This spring the Department or Art and Art History hosted the annual Bay Area Undergraduate Art History Research Symposium, affectionately known as the "Bay" Symposium. This annual event—founded in 2010 by Santa Clara University, University of San Francisco, Dominican University of California, and Saint Mary’s College of California—showcases the work of art history students. Since then, it has grown to encompass much of the Northern California region and includes up to12 participating institutions.
On Saturday, April 25th, students gathered in the de Saisset Museum auditorium to present research on art from all over the world, dating from antiquity to the present. Student papers investigated a variety of media—ceramics, textiles, painting, photography, manuscripts, and installation art—as they engaged the relationship between art and identity, ethics, political activism, the environment, and more. A large crowd turned out to hear these talks and to continue the conversations during the lively Q&A and at the reception following panel.
This year, Lucas Gustin represented SCU with a paper titled "Photography, Uranium, and the Navaho Landscape" that examined two 1953 photographs by the American artist Laura Gilpin. Known for her breathtaking landscape photographs of the Southwest, Lucas contextualized them with her lesser known photographs of uranium mines in the same area. Congratulations, Lucas!
Photos coming soon!