Custer Awarded Dissertation Fellowship

Lee Ann Custer, a doctoral candidate in the History of Art Department, received a Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship. The fellowship, given by the American Council of Learned Societies and supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, is granted to emerging scholars of U.S. art history as they research and write their dissertations.

Custer’s dissertation, The Voids of New York: Spaces of the Modern Metropolis in American Art from Chase to O’Keeffe, focuses on the architecture of turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York. In particular, Custer examines “voids,” or empty spaces created by New York’s built, and increasingly dense, environments. She argues that in order to capture these spaces, including public lawns and rear tenement yards, artists developed new artistic approaches to form, subject matter, and style.

The Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship includes a stipend and additional funds for travel and research. In 2017, Custer received the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students.