Two UTSA art history faculty members win coveted NEH awards

Two UTSA faculty will be recipients of National Endowment for the Humanities awards, part of $30.9 million in grants to support 188 humanities projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Julie Johnson, associate professor of art history, was awarded $60,000 for her project “Hiding in Plain Sight: Maria van Oosterwyck in the Habsburg Collections,” research and writing that will lead to a book about Dutch Golden Age painter Maria van Oosterwyck (1630–1693).

Juliet Wiersema, associate professor of art history, was awarded a $60,000 fellowship to pursue her research project “Spanish Colonial Cartography from Colombia’s Pacific Lowlands, 1710–1810,” which will lead to a book of unpublished maps depicting the economic life of free and enslaved Africans in Nueva Granada (modern-day Colombia) during the 18th century.

“These two faculty members are breaking new ground through their research and telling the stories of people that might otherwise be lost,” said Rhonda M. Gonzales, interim dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts. “We’re so proud of all of their achievements, but an NEH grant really signifies what a high level of scholarship these two women have achieved. They bring a lot to their students and the College of Liberal and Fine Arts.”