Winner of IBP 2011 Dissertations Humanities

Carmen Perez Gonzalez, 'A Comparative Visual Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Iranian Portrait Photography and Persian Painting'. 

A Comparative Visual Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Iranian Portrait Photography and Persian Painting presents a meticulous and well thought-out analysis of Iranian nineteenth-century visual representations of identity and their aesthetics. In doing so, she builds on a large and hitherto understudied, if not undiscovered body of photographs that were taken through the lenses of both Iranian and non-Iranian photographers. By cross-examining nineteenth-century Iranian portrait photography and the rich Iranian portrait painting tradition, González is able to pinpoint the subtleties that underlie the visual negotiation of a distinctly Iranian identity that is alert, in a critical way, to European influence. What makes her approach so valuable and fresh is González’s ability to unveil the processes of the creation of meaning through photographic art in nineteenth-century Iran. She does so by contextualizing portrait photography within its historical and cultural frameworks of reference. Such a project requires a full-fledged theoretical framework that is informed by several disciplines including Islamic art history, history of photography, post-colonial studies, and world art history that she has carefully crafted. We are pleased to award Carmen Peréz González the ICAS Best Thesis Prize in the humanities for this extra-ordinary piece of PhD work that will certainly have repercussions beyond world art and Iranian Studies.

Shortlist IBP 2011 Dissertations Humanities

Katrin Binder, 'Yaksagana Rangabhumi: The World of the Yakasagana Stage'. 

Pedit Pui Chan, 'The Making of  a Modern Art World: The Institutionalization of Guohua in Shanghai'.