Armani Awarded Luce/ACLD Dissertation Fellowship in American Art

Elise Armani, an art history and criticism PhD candidate in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Art, was recently awarded a 2024 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art. Armani is one of seven exceptional doctoral candidates awarded for their promising research in object and image-based American art history.

Armani's research"Making Rhythms Out of Barriers: Infrastructural Interventions by Migrant Artists on the Lower East Side (1975-1989),"explores a network of (im)migrant artists on the Lower East Side (LES) of Manhattan, using the local as a frame for understanding artistic production as embedded in the cultural, social, and spatial intimacies of urban geography and migration.

The program is made possible by a major grant from the Henry Luce Foundation and administered by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). The Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art Program supports early-career scholars as they pursue dissertations that advance scholarship on the history of the visual arts of the United States, including all facets of Native American art, with a particular focus on elevating voices, perspectives, and subjects that have been historically underrepresented in the academy.

"Through our continued partnership with the Luce Foundation, ACLS is proud to support the exciting work of these emerging scholars of American art." said ACLS Program Officer Alison Chang. "Their work is poised to broaden and shift the narrative of American art by highlighting the untold stories of creators throughout our history."

Each fellow will receive $42,000 to support one year of research and writing as well as fellowship-related travel between July 2024 and May 2026. The 2024 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellows in American Art join a community of over 300 past awardees, including some of the country's most distinguished college and university faculty, museum professionals, and leaders in the cultural sector.

View a detailed list of 2024 awardees.