2021-22
Art of the Spanish Americas

Yessica Porras, Thoma Foundation Research & Travel Award Winner

Yessica Porras, PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, has received the Thoma Foundation Research and Travel Award in the amount of $24,333 to complete collections and archival research for her dissertation “Colonial Mural Palimpsests in the Northern Andes: Layers of Memory and Meaning.” Attending particularly to “mural fragments that emerge from the corners of retablos, wall fissures, and whitewashed surfaces” in churches and convents, Porras’ project explores “the overlap of mural painting and human interaction” in Colombia and Ecuador.