Annual Postgraduate Symposium 2025/26

Exterior view of the historic Somerset House stone building with ornate architectural details and statues, partially framed by tree branches. © Courtauld. Photo: Lewis Ronald.

We are delighted to invite you to the Courtauld Institute51²è¹Ý¶ù annual Postgraduate Symposium 2025/2026. Researchers in the final stages of their doctoral degrees will deliver papers emerging out of their research projects. In past years, the event has been a moment for faculty, students and the public to celebrate innovative research.

Organised by Alison Braybrooks and Smaranda Ciubotaru, PhD students at the Courtauld.Ìý

30 Apr - 1 May 2026

9:30 - 19:00

Free, booking essential

Vernon Square Campus, Lecture Theatre 2

This event takes place at our Vernon Square campus (WC1X 9EW).

Schedule

Programme Day One

16.00–16.30 Registration opens

16.30–16.40 Opening remarks and introduction
Alison Braybrooks, Smaranda Ciubotaru, PhD students and symposium organisers

16.40–18.20 Panel 1 – Text, Material Dialogue and Ritual

‘Transience and Permanence: The Effigy of Wolfhard of Roth (d. 1302) and the Material Paradox of Death in Metal’
Isabella Maoz (Schwarzer)

‘“With such colour and embroidery as shall be agreed upon by the entire fellowship”: The Parureboek and Ceremonial Dress in Bruges’ Confraternity of the Holy Blood’
Leylim Erenel

‘“in order that their fervent devotion may be kindled and God in his creation glorified more often”: The Chantry Chapel of Henry V in Westminster Abbey’
Sophia Dumoulin

‘Keeping it Short (Breviculum): A Pre-History of Comic Strips’
Ricardo Mandelbaum Balla

18.20–19.30 Drinks Reception
Open to all

Programme Day Two

9.00–9.30 Registration opens

9.30–9.40 Opening remarks and introduction
Alison Braybrooks, Smaranda Ciubotaru, PhD students and symposium organisers

9.40–11.20 Panel 2 – Under the Lens

‘Revisiting Varnish Removal: “Greener” Cleaning Methods for Aged Synthetic Varnishes on Acrylic Emulsion Paint Films’
Beatrice Menegaldo

‘From Materiality to Meaning: An Investigation into the Painting Materials and Techniques of Joan Miró during his Artistic Period in Mallorca (1956-1983)’
Mar Gomez

‘Interconnected Identities: Applying Machine Learning Analysis to Small-Scale 16th c. Paintings’
Tanya Klowden

‘Unseen Disegno: The Use of Cartoons in Renaissance Venice’
Emma P. Holter

11.20 – 11.40 Refreshment Break
Tea and coffee provided

11.40 – 13.00 Panel 3 – Architectural Identities

‘Architectural Ambition: Jacopo de’ Pazzi at Santa Croce, Palazzo Pazzi, and the Florentine Badia’
Emma Iadanza

‘Building a “Compositional Kit”: Records, Copies, and Collaboration in Andrea Palladio51²è¹Ý¶ù Workshop’
Alexis Nanavaty

‘Release the Angels: The Use of Stucco in Immersive Religious Spaces in Rome around 1600’
Alison Braybrooks

13.00–13.40 Lunch break
Provided for participants and organisers

13.40–15.00 Panel 4 – Subversive Collectives

‘Free Unions Locked Up: The Paradox of Resistance and the Special Branch Confiscation of a British Surrealist Journal’
Christina Childs

‘“Le streghe son tornate”: Anti-Institutional Feminists Reimagining Women in 1970s Italy’
Veronica Orlandi

‘Maud Sulter51²è¹Ý¶ù Early Years: From the Blackwomen51²è¹Ý¶ù Creativity Project to Passion,1982-1990’
Zoe Bromberg-McCarthy

15.00–16.20 Panel 5 – Nations, Peripheries and Localities

‘Third Cultures: Late Soviet Samizdat in the Practice of Serge Segay and Rea Nikonova’
Rada Georgieva

‘A Blackface Knight: The Arthurian Legends, Minstrelsy, and Trans-Atlantic Cultural Exchange, 1860 – 1918’
Zoe Mercer-Golden

‘The Geological Stripe: Ethel Mairet and the Landscape of Sussex’
Alice Dodds

16.20–16.40 Refreshment Break
Tea and Coffee Provided

16.40–18.00 Panel 6 – Embodied Approaches

‘The Architectonics of Spirit: Galka Scheyer51²è¹Ý¶ù Home-Gallery by Richard Neutra and Gregory Ain, 1934-6’
Rachel Denniston

‘Resistant Skins: Material Agency in Feminist Painting’
Tatjana Schaefer

‘Playing with Matches: Exhibiting Șerbana Drăgoescu51²è¹Ý¶ù Intermedial Game Across the Iron Curtain’
Smaranda Ciubotaru

18.00–18.10 Closing Remarks
Klara Kemp-Welch, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History
and Head of Research Degrees Programme, The Courtauld

18.10–19.00 Drinks Reception
Open to all

Citations