Emily Cox (USA)

Emily Cox
MSt in History of Art

A native of Fairfax, Virginia, I pursued an M.St in the History of Art and Visual Culture at Oxford. My research interests focus on the transnational nature of fin-de-siècle art and politics, bringing together the literature, visual art, and political theory of three global centers in the 1890s: Paris, London, and St. Petersburg. My research has taken me to museums and collections around Europe, but the heart of my project was based out of the Pissarro Archives in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. “An Anarchist in the Shadows: Camille Pissarro and the Politics of Light,” my undergraduate dissertation at the University of Virginia, explored the nature of artificial illumination and anarchocommunist politics in Paris and London, and I am grateful that I was able to continue my studies with the exceptional aid of the museums and archives in Oxford and London.

Following postgraduate work, I hope to become a curator, bringing my research to a broader public, and most importantly, sharing my joy of art with others. I am particularly interested in the way that art might serve to further diplomatic causes and social justice issues. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, exploring cities and museums, hunting for new coffee shops, and listening to what everyone acknowledges to be bad pop music. In Oxford, you would often find me running along the river trail, practicing my forehand on the grass courts, or holed up in the museum, with my notebook and paintings.

Life After Ertegun House

I am now a first year PhD student in Yale’s History of Art Department. My research focuses on the radical political and aesthetic currents that ran between England, France, and Russia in the fin-de-siècle. My work is both interdisciplinary and transnational, spanning the philosophy, literature, and visual arts of these three major nineteenth-century European powers. Current projects include the evolution of anarchist geography, the politics of domestic utopias, and the materiality of the fin-de-siècle night.

My time as an Ertegun Scholar was absolutely invaluable for my intellectual development. Never again, I suspect, will I be in a house full of such brilliant thinkers who are so very willing to share both their intellectual expertise and their friendship. I look forward to continuing my involvement with the Ertegun community as an organizer of the USA East Coast Alumni Program.