PhD; Renaissance Art
she/her/hers
Jillianne Laceste specializes in early modern Italian art with a particular interest in the Ligurian city of Genoa. Her research addresses seventeenth-century Genoese representations of Christopher Columbus in relation to the Republic of Genoa’s maritime identity and political and economical position to the Spanish Empire. Since Fall 2023, she has served as a Graduate Writing Fellow in BU’s Writing Program, where she teaches topic-based seminars that use art history as a foundation. Her WR 120 first-year writing course addresses Medieval and Renaissance monstrosity and her WR 152 Writing, Research, & Inquiry course focuses on the visual culture of monsters in art, film, and graphic novels. In addition to her dissertation research and teaching, Jillianne currently serves on the Emerging Scholars Committee of the Italian Arts Society.
Research Interests:
- * Maritime discourse of the Mediterranean and Atlantic
* Conceptions of race and otherness
* Materiality of silver
Dissertation [2025]: “Hispanic–Genoese Geopolitics & Representations of Christopher Columbus in Seventeenth-Century Genoa” PDF
MA Thesis: “Making Sense of Music in Early Modern Self-Portraiture”
2020-2021: Symposium Co-Coordinator for the Graduate Student History of Art & Architecture Association
2019-2020: Guest Scholar Lecture Series Coordinator