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The Caltech-Huntington Program in Visual Culture was established in 2019 with funding under a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Designed as a collaboration between HSS and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens (The Huntington), the CHVC program includes undergraduate course offerings, postdoctoral instructorships, artists residencies with professional visiting artists, and a wide range of programming activities—with the aim of fostering new conversations not only among humanists but also between humanists and scientists.

In the 2020–2021 academic year, roughly one fifth of Caltech's undergraduate students enrolled in the growing number of visual culture classes on subjects ranging from Plantation Imaginaries to Volcanoes to Picturing Science. Caltech added a minor in visual culture to its curriculum as of the fall of 2021.

March 29, 2024 9:00 am

Visual Culture Spring Workshop

Anthropocene Media Working Group Workshop
April 22, 2024 3:00 pm

Visual Culture Program

Scales
Devin Griffiths, University of Southern California,
Anna Henchman, Boston University,
Omar Nasim, University of Regensburg,
Anne Sullivan, University of California, Riverside,

Student Activities

Director

Brian Jacobson
Brian R. Jacobson

Professor of Visual Culture

Postdoctoral Instructor

Anna Stielau
Anna Stielau

Weisman Postdoctoral Instructor in Visual Culture

J.V. Decemvirale
Weisman Postdoctoral Instructor in Visual Culture and Caltech Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, 2021–2023
Current Placement: Assistant Professor of Art History and Global Cultures, Cal State San Bernardino

Anne Sullivan
Weisman Postdoctoral Instructor in Visual Culture, 2019–2021
Anne Rothenberg Postdoctoral Instructor in Visual Culture, 2021–2022

Current Placement: Lecturer, University Writing Program, UC Riverside

Art + Research Residency

Leslie Thornton at Caltech

This program provides the opportunity to engage with the research communities at Caltech and The Huntington, and to teach and work with Caltech students. It supports artists and other creative practitioners whose work involves research and experimentation. The next Artist in Residence is expected during the 2024–2025 academic year.

Maya Livio
Artist in Residence (Spring 2023)

Caitlin Berrigan
Artist in Residence (Winter 2023)

Elin O'Hara Slavick
Artist in Residence (Spring 2022)

Lia Halloran
Artist in Residence (Winter 2022)

Sandy Rodriguez
Artist in Residence (Winter 2021)

Jessica Helfand
Artist in Residence (Winter 2020)

Leslie Thornton
Artist in Residence (Spring 2019)