Congratulations to Catherine Rucker, PhD ‘26!
Dissertation: “Refraction and the Entropic Gaze: A Study of Visuality and Conceptual Blackness”
Committee: Shirley Samuels (Chair), Cheryl Finley, Riche D. Richardson, Derrick R. Spires
Catherine’s interests are in Modern and Contemporary African American art and history. Her art-historical practice is interdisciplinary; her research centers on art and its relationships with philosophy and physics, and on how the intersection of art and science can create space for new ways of thinking about vision, visuality, and perception.
Catherine’s dissertation transforms the concept of refraction into a framework for theorizing and critiquing methodologies of witnessing and gazing in art. Using the Studio Museum in Harlem’s exhibition, Black Refractions (2019), as reference and inspiration, Catherine uses refraction to investigate the nuanced ways in which Black artists critically expand Blackness through their practice while also engaging with the cultural knowledge that Black artistry reflects.
Catherine has presented her work at the Annual Symposium on the History of Art for graduate students, jointly sponsored by The Frick Collection and the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, and at the African American Art History: Present Coordinates symposium hosted by Boston University’s Department of the History of Art & Architecture.
She has worked and taught in various museums and institutions, including The Mennello Museum of American Art, the Goodwood Museums and Gardens, and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.
