Academics

Penn State Sawyer Seminar postdoc and grad fellows named

Architectural historian Danielle Abdon has been named the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow for 2021-22 in conjunction with the Sawyer Seminar. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State has named a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and two Mellon Graduate Fellows as part of an upcoming Sawyer Seminar devoted to the study of early modern architecture and urbanism. Jointly hosted by the College of Arts and Architecture and the College of the Liberal Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded program will bring more than a dozen visiting scholars to Penn State to give public lectures, participate in colloquia with graduate students and conduct digital humanities workshops. The title of the 2021-22 Sawyer Seminar is “Transmission, Containment, Transformation: A Comparative Approach to Architecture and Contagion in Early Modern Cities.”

Architectural historian Danielle Abdon has been named the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow for 2021-22. Abdon’s area of expertise is early modern hospitals in Europe and Latin America. During her postdoctoral fellowship, Abdon will continue to conduct research on how public health intersected with hospital design in Europe and Latin America. Abdon completed her doctorate at Temple University in 2020. Along with participating in the Sawyer Seminar throughout the academic year, Abdon will be preparing a book manuscript based on her dissertation, “Poverty, Disease and Port Cities: Global Exchanges in Hospital Architecture during the Age of Exploration.” The Department of Art History serves as Abdon’s institutional home during her postdoc.

Two current Penn State doctoral students have been awarded Mellon Graduate Fellowships in conjunction with the Sawyer Seminar. Emily Hagen, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History, and Francesco Lacopo, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History, will spend the year engaged in research and writing on topics related to the Sawyer Seminar’s themes.

Lacopo’s dissertation concerns religion, state-making and the containment of non-Catholics in the early modern global world. Hagen is writing her dissertation on the significance of Christian relics for the experience of early modern architecture and ritual in Italy. Both graduate fellows will have the opportunity to present their research during the course of the seminar.

For more information on this Sawyer Seminar, visit arts.psu.edu/sawyer-seminar.

For more information on the Sawyer Seminar program, founded in 1994, visit mellon.org/programs/higher-learning/sawyer-seminars/.

Emily Hagen, a doctoral candidate in Penn State's Department of Art History, has been awarded a Mellon Graduate Fellowship for 2021-22 in conjunction with the Sawyer Seminar. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Francesco Lacopo, a doctoral candidate in Penn State's Department of History, has been awarded a Mellon Graduate Fellowship for 2021-22 in conjunction with the Sawyer Seminar. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

 

Last Updated August 2, 2021