Elaine Auyoung
Harvard University
English Literature
Less Like Seeing, More Like Knowing: The Economy of Literary Representation
Elaine Auyoung is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at Harvard University. Her dissertation draws attention to the economical means by which fictional persons, places, and worlds can be constructed. In her consideration of work by British novelists such as Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, and Ian McEwan, she employs literary analysis, aesthetic philosophy, and cognitive psychology to elucidate the reader’s aesthetic and epistemological relationship to fictional representation. She received her undergraduate degree in English from Stanford University with honors and with distinction.
For more information, read the article "Quick Study: Elaine Auyoung RIGF '10."
Ellen Exner
Harvard University
Historical Musicology
King Frederick the Great and the Origins of Modern Musical Life in Berlin (1732 to 1756)
Ellen Exner is a PhD candidate in the Harvard University Department of Music. Her dissertation explores the eighteenth-century foundations of modern-day Berlin’s rich musical culture, arguing that it originates with Frederick II “The Great” (1740–1786), the king of Prussia who was as passionate a musician as he was a soldier. Exner holds undergraduate degrees, cum laude, in both music history and Russian from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, as well as a master’s degree in music history from Smith College. The Krupp Foundation, through the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, has generously supported Exner’s research.
Kristi Olson
Harvard University
Philosophy
Freedom, Justice, and the Market
Kristi Olson is a PhD candidate in philosophy at Harvard University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of philosophy and public policy, with a particular focus on questions of distributive justice. She has received fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, and the Project on Justice, Welfare, and Economics. Prior to attending Harvard, she worked as a staff attorney at a national public interest law firm. She holds a JD with honors from Duke Law School and a BA with high honors in music and geography from Indiana University.
Prudence Peiffer
Harvard University
Art History
Routine Extremism: Ad Reinhardt and Modern Art
Prudence Peiffer is a PhD candidate in the Harvard University Department of History of Art and Architecture, where she studies modern art, particularly abstraction and artist’s writings. At Radcliffe, she will complete her dissertation, “Routine Extremism: Ad Reinhardt and Modern Art,” which explores the multifaceted oeuvre of American artist Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) and its unique model of aesthetic commitment and historical self-reflection. Peiffer received a BA in art history from Yale University and fellowships from the Charles Warren Center, Getty Research Institute, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Terra Foundation for American Art.
Photos by Tony Rinaldo
