Undergraduate helps bring humanities research to the public eye

Though Stephanie Reitzig, a third-year studying history in the College, researches art objects that date as far back as the Renaissance in her research, her work aims to address issues that are pertinent to society today. 

“The projects I've worked on have been focused on questions like: ‘What are the dark sides of rapid technological change?’ or ‘Where did modern constructions of race come from?’ or ‘What can we learn from past pandemics?’” she said.

Reitzig is an undergraduate research associate for the Smart Museum of Art and a research assistant for the Newberry Library in Chicago through the College Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities Scholars program (CRASSH). 

“Our partnership with the Smart Museum, Newberry Library, and Department of Art History has paved the way for students like Stephanie to take full advantage of the unique research opportunities available to arts and humanities students,” said Nichole Fazio, executive director of the College Center for Research and Fellowships. “She has gained valuable research and curatorial skills, as well as contributed to the vital work of our own professional arts organizations and renowned research institutions in Chicago.”

Most recently at the Smart Museum, which reopened to the public on April 8, Reitzig has been assisting with an exhibition organized by the Feitler Center for Academic Inquiry called “Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe” curated by Nora Lambert, a doctoral student in the Department of Art History. For the exhibition, she investigated minute details on artifacts, such as a coat of arms on a wooden tray, and studied such broader topics as Northern European printmaking and depictions of death and morality. 

She also is in the process of organizing a student-led symposium at the Smart Museum, called: “The Lives and Afterlives of Objects,” which solicited papers and proposals from both undergraduate and graduate students. The symposium also connects to the Smart Museum exhibit, discussing themes such as material culture, life cycles and the passage of time. 

While historical texts are themselves a valuable source of research material, Reitzig said one of her favorite aspects of working with them is that there is often evidence of other people analyzing and researching the books, which can leave insights and clues for further investigation.

“I love seeing the annotations people have left over the years; in one book I looked at, somebody had written in blue crayon inside the front cover ‘À brûler, Ridicule & méchant’ (To burn, Ridiculous & evil),” she said. “It's one thing to do historical research using digitized archives, and another thing entirely to be in a reading room looking at a 16th-century Florentine priorista. It blows my mind every time.”

Reitzig hopes to continue her studies of the Renaissance and aims to complete a PhD in history with a focus on early modern Europe, before going into a career in museum and library fields. She is adamant about the importance of the “enormous puzzle” that is humanistic-focused research and the power of history as a tool for understanding the world.

“I think there's a common perception — sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit — that humanities and social science research is frivolous, or that it's not contributing to the good of society as much as, say, biological research,” Reitzig said. “I really believe in the importance of bringing scholarly humanities research to the general public in an engaging and relevant way.”