Bronwen Cox is a 2021-22 JHI Undergraduate Fellow (James Fleck Undergraduate Award in the Humanities). She’s completing a specialist in Art History and a double minor in Spanish and Italian. Her project at the JHI is titled “Depictions of Female Pleasure in Modern Art”.
JHI: What are your main research interests?
BC: My research in art history has focused on modernism – although I have a soft spot for Ancient Greek art and archeology. As for research topics, I am most interested in women artists, postcolonial studies, and themes such as sexuality, spirituality, and self-representation.
JHI: What research project(s) are you working on now at the JHI and why did you choose it?
BC: My research at the JHI is on women artists, surrealism, and sexual expression. When I applied to the JHI fellowship, with the year’s theme “Pleasure” in mind, I was struck by the lack of scholarship around female sexual pleasure, in my own discipline and in general. I decided to devote my project to female sexual expression, across diverse sexual orientations; I originally intended to study various modernist movements, but I’ve since narrowed my scope to just surrealism, a movement which contained a plethora of women artists and discussions of sexuality.
JHI: What experiences are you hoping for while you’re at the JHI?
BC: Through my fellowship at the JHI, I’ve hoped to gain more research experience, engage in interdisciplinary academic discussions, and build an academic, constructive community, all of which I feel have been realised over the last few months. The fellowship has been such a unique and instrumental experience within my undergraduate studies!
JHI: Share something you read/watched/listened to recently that you enjoyed/were inspired by.
BC: I read my first Toni Morrison novel (Paradise) a few months ago and I cannot stop thinking about it! I read the first few sentences and thought, how have I not read this author sooner? Her topics are incredible relevant and insightful in today’s context, her characters are vibrant and real, and her writing is so beautiful and visceral. I’ve always been interested in writing fiction and her work has really inspired me!
JHI: What is a fun fact about you?
BC: My fun fact is one of the most random facts about me – in high school, I was an extra in a horror movie! I will not be providing the title, however (it’s not very good).