Rachel Kline is a sixth year PhD candidate in History of Art and Architecture studying the Italian Renaissance. Prior to attending BU, Rachel earned a dual B.A. in the history of art and anthropology with a minor in Italian from Haverford College. Rachel’s primary area of research is the female nude and its relationship to Renaissance ideologies of gender and sexuality. Rachel is especially interested in the secular domestic arts of fifteenth-century Italy and the role of the female viewer in determining their meaning.
Currently, Rachel is writing her dissertation, which will center female viewership by exploring representations of the female nude inside marriage chests and on objects of domestic material culture from Florence to Venice. Originally from New Jersey, Rachel has held internships in the curatorial department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the public programs/summer camp department of the Penn Museum.