Dora Wiebenson Prize
Each year HECAA awards the Wiebenson Prize for an outstanding graduate student paper presented during the previous calendar year at a scholarly conference or as a sponsored lecture. The prize is named for Dr. Dora Wiebenson, Professor Emerita at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, who served as HECAA’s first president from 1993 to 1995.
By 15 February, each applicant should submit a PDF of the paper for consideration—as read, without notes, but with illustrations—to the HECAA president, who will then forward the submissions to an ad hoc committee responsible for selecting the winner. Honorable mention is also an option for papers of distinction not chosen for the prize. Recipients must be HECAA members in good standing. If you are a previous Wiebenson Prize recipient, you may apply again two cycles after your initial award. In other words, if you won an award in the current academic year, you may apply again in two years. Please contact the HECAA President.
PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS
2024 Carole Nataf, “Rococo epistemology: Shell grottos and the aesthetics of deep time in Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon's theory of the earth,” HECAA@30, 2023
2023 Daniella Berman, “Uncertainty and / of Time: The Problematics of Representing the French Revolution,” ASECS, 2022
2022 Philippe Halbert, “A Toilette in their Fashion’: Indigenizing the Dressing Table in France and New France,” 2022 Rienzi Symposium
2021 Sarah Grandin, “Trees, Orphans, and the Forgotten Figures of Savonnerie Carpet Manufacturing, 1662–1688,” CAA, 2021
2020 Sarah Carter, “Negotiating Cultural Difference: Indian Antiquities in Richard Payne Knight’s A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus” HECAA Open Session, Universities Art Association of Canada Conference, 2019
2019 Jennifer Chuong, “Engraving’s ‘Immoveable Veil of Black’: Phillis Wheatley’s Portrait and the Politics of Technique,” CAA, 2018
2018 Kee II Choi Jr., “‘In All Things Must the Ancients Be Imitated’: Vases and Diplomacy at the Qing Court,” Diplomatic Presents between China and Europe, 2017
2017 Isabelle Masse, “Entre pastel et photographie: les portraits de Gerrit Schipper au Bas-Canada (1808–1810)”
2016 Oliver Wunsch, “Face Time: Permanence and Pastel Portraiture,” CAA, 2016
2015 Ashley Bruckbauer, “The Little (Cochinchinese) Prince: Diplomatic Masquerade and the Construction of Fantasy in Maupérin’s Portrait of Prince Canh”
2014 William L. Coleman,”‘Both Instructive and Pleasant’: The Country House Garden in Vitruvius Britannicus”
2013 Hyejin Lee, “The Language of Magic in Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin’s Food Still Lifes”
2012 Susan Wager, “Madame de Pompadour’s Indiscreet Jewels: Boucher, Reproduction, and Luxury in Eighteenth-Century France”
2011 Hilary Coe Smith, “A New Approach to Measuring Taste in the Parisian Art Market”
2010 Georgina Cole, “Picturing Privacy: Doors in Jean-Baptiste Chardin’s Genre Paintings”
2009 Jessica Priebe, “François Boucher and the Rituals of Display in Eighteenth-Century Conchology” AND David Pullins, “Mapping Chinoiserie onto the Neoclassical House: Robert Adam’s Designs ‘in the Chinese Taste’”
2008 No prize awarded
2007 Sally Ann Grant, “Play in the Garden in Eighteenth-Century Venice”
2006 Christina Lindeman, “Constructing a Cosmopolitan Identity: Portraits of Anna Amalia, Duchess of Sachsen-Weimar”
2005 No prize awarded
2004 Denise Amy Baxter, “Jean-François de Troy’s tableaux de mode: Defining a Fashionable Genre in Early Eighteenth-Century France”
2003 Andria Derstine, “Statues and Stature: The Accademia di San Luca from 1675 to 1725”
2002 Michael Yonan, “Imperial Identity and Roman Authority: Pompeo Batoni and the Austrian Habsburgs”
2001 No prize awarded
2000 Andrew Graciano, “Botanical Sensibility: Joseph Wright of Derby’s Portrait of Brooke Boothby (1781) Reconsidered”
1999 Lisa Koruga, “Las Vegas Lagoon: Canaletto’s Paintings”
1998 Candace Jean Kern, “Boucher’s Cabinet at the Louvre, 1771”
1997 Mary Salzman, “Jean-François de Troy’s The Reading from Molière and the Eighteenth-Century Salon Interior”
Mary Vidal Memorial Award
HECAA members who are graduate students or who have completed the Ph.D. within the past three years are eligible to apply for subventions. Named in memory of Professor Mary Vidal, the funds are intended to defray costs associated with research travel, conferences in which the recipients are presenting, or publication permission fees. The amount has varied historically depending on the number of applicants and available funds, as of 2024 the award is $500.
Applicants should send a single PDF with a CV, a brief description of the project (approx. 400 words), including a 1-2 line summary of how the funds will be used, and a simple budget charting how the amount requested will be spent, by May 15th or November 15th (there are two deadlines) to hecaamembers@gmail.com. If you are a previous Vidal Award recipient, you may apply again two cycles after your initial award. In other words, if you won an award in the fall cycle, you may apply again the following fall. Please contact the HECAA President with any questions.
Previous Recipients
2024 Mariela Espinoza-León, Nicole Gasparini Cesari, Jennifer Laffick
2023 Harvey Shepherd, Dani Ezor, Marie Giraud
2022 Tori Champion, Carole Nataf, Yasemin Altun
2021 Elizabeth Saari Browne, Matthew Gin
2020 Anna Ficek, Monica Anke Hahn
2019 Feng Schöneweiß
2018 Daniella Berman
2017 Felix Martin
2016 Margot Danielle Bernstein, Daniella Berman
2012 Lauren Cannaday, Amanda Strasik
2011 Georgina Cole, Susan Wager
2009 Amber Ludwig, Sally Grant, Anne-Louise Gonçalves Fonseca
Mary D. Sheriff Travel and Research Award
The Mary D. Sheriff Award is sponsored by ASECS (American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies) and by HECAA. It supports the study of feminist topics in eighteenth-century art history and visual culture. Doctoral candidates, early career scholars, and contingent faculty who are current members of ASECS and HECAA are eligible to apply.