MIAMI BEACH, FL (AUGUST 10, 2006) World’s fairs in Paris, Italian aviation, and imperial propaganda in Britain and France will be among the topics explored by participants in The Wolfsonian–FIU fellowship program for 2006-07. For this year’s program, The Wolfsonian received twenty-nine applications from scholars representing institutions across the United States, as well as Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Taiwan. With the help of a panel of five external reviewers, the museum selected five fellows from among these applicants for the upcoming year; each will be in residence for four weeks. The Wolfsonian’s fellowship program began in 1995, and since then more than fifty scholars from around the world have visited The Wolfsonian to conduct research that has resulted in exhibitions, articles, and books.

The 2006-07 fellows are:

Federico Caprotti, a lecturer in human geography at St. Peter's College and Oxford University’s Centre for the Environment, aims to study the cultural construction of Italian East Africa. His focus will be on materials related to civil aviation during the Fascist period, especially the Ala Littoria airline. His interests include both the representation of East African colonies through aviation posters and other printed materials, and also the celebration of modern technology as a tool of modern dominance, producing a view of the colonies “from above.”

The emergence of Italy’s Mediterranean colonies of Rhodes and Libya as popular destinations for Italian tourists in the early twentieth century will be the subject of Stephanie Hom Cary’s research at The Wolfsonian. Cary, a doctoral candidate in Italian studies at the University of California, Berkeley, will consider how these sites came to represent “Italy” and “Italianness” in political propaganda and tourist ephemera. And she will explore the relationship between the touristic/colonial Italy and the political one born under Mussolini’s Fascist regime.

Matthew Stanard, a future faculty teaching fellow in history at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, will conduct a comparative study of European imperial propaganda and its relation to European “colonial culture” and knowledge of Africa and Africans. This field is in need of a comparative examination, as almost all existent studies approach the subject from one nation’s experience. The project will incorporate an analysis of Great Britain and France, but will also involve examination of smaller imperial powers such as Portugal, Italy, Germany Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The four Paris exhibitions held between 1889 and 1937 will be the focus of Michelle Warren’s project. She is particularly interested in displays about Réunion Island, a colony located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar that consistently presented itself as the “second France.” Warren, an associate professor of comparative literature at Dartmouth College, will analyze both Réunion diaspora culture and the place of medievalism in French colonialism.

In addition to the four fellows who will visit in 2006-07, one other scholar who was selected to participate in this year’s program has decided to defer her research visit until the following year. Jennifer Glaser, a doctoral candidate in the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, will pursue research on the roots of East German industrial design in the decades before the Second World War.

About The Wolfsonian–Florida International University

The Wolfsonian–FIU is a museum and research center that uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, political, and technological changes that have transformed the world. The approximately 120,000 artifacts that comprise The Wolfsonian collection range from fine art, graphic design, and political propaganda to furniture, rare books, and ephemeral materials such as postcards and travel brochures. Since opening to the public just ten years ago, The Wolfsonian has developed and disseminated critically acclaimed exhibitions, publications, and educational programs that highlight the impact of design in shaping the modern world. Its vast patrimony of primary source materials provides unparalleled opportunities for scholarship and appreciation, making it a unique resource for local, national, and international audiences.

The Wolfsonian is located at 1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, Fla. Admission is $7 adults; $5 seniors, students, and children six-12; free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, children under six, and Miami Beach residents with ID. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday from noon-6pm; Thursday and Friday from noon-9pm; and is closed on Wednesday. Contact us at 305.531.1001 or visit us online at www.wolfsonian.org.

The Wolfsonian receives ongoing support from the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council; Crispin Porter + Bogusky; Continental Airlines, the preferred airline of The Wolfsonian; the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation; and Karla Conceptual Event Experiences.

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