Alison Holdsworth

Alison Holdsworth is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Art History at American University in Washington, DC. She joined the Medici Archive Project in January of 2021, where she worked alongside a team of fellow graduate students for Dr. Gabriele Mancuso within the Eugene Grant Jewish History Program. Their tasks included collecting and cataloguing images and objects for an upcoming exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Most recently, Alison has also accepted a position to intern for Dr. Sheila Barker at MAP within the Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists. Alison’s own interests involve the work of women artists of the Italian Renaissance, material culture of the period, and somaesthetics. Her thesis focuses on Northern Italian portraits of women (1480-1600) and the evocation of the sense of touch to suggest female agency in those works. She had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Italy this summer for thesis research after being awarded the Carol Bird Ravenal Travel Award in Art History as well as a College of Arts and Sciences Student Research Award by faculty at American University.