Olivia Clemens

Olivia Clemens is a PhD candidate specializing in the arts of the medieval Islamic world and the history of their reception, collecting, and display. She is currently working on the dissertation, “Forming ‘Islamic Art’ in the United States: Collecting and Exhibiting in the American Context, c. 1880–1940.” This project reveals the interplay between medievalism, Aestheticism, and the popularity of “Islamic” material. In 2021-2022, her dissertation work will be supported by a Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2020-2021, she received the GSAS Teaching Scholars Fellowship, through which she designed and led an undergraduate seminar, “Medieval Revival: Copying, Collecting, and Co-Opting the Past.” Olivia holds MA and MPhil degrees from Columbia University and a BA in Art History from UCLA (summa cum laude). Before beginning graduate studies, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.