Spring 2025 Special Collections Coursework Development Grant
Special Collections is pleased to announce the recipients of the Coursework Development Grant for the Spring 2025 semester. Supported by the Toulouse Archival Research Program Endowment, the grant was established in 2019 to partner with faculty at UNT to develop assignments for courses that will utilize collections and materials held by Special Collections. Recipients of the grant are awarded $500 in research and professional development funding.
The Spring 2025 winners are:
Dr. Mónica Salazar, Senior Lecturer, Department of Art History
Dr. Salazar is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Art History at the University of North Texas, where she teaches courses in postmodernism, theories of contemporary art, as well as the history of photography and modern and contemporary Latin American art. Her research considers questions regarding Mexico’s entrance into the globalized world order and the consequences this has for the visual arts.
Students in her upper-level undergraduate History of Photography course will study holdings in the Byrd Williams Family Photography Collection as inspiration for a creative self-portrait assignment.
Dr. Layla Seale, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Art History
Dr. Seale is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History at UNT, specializing in Medieval Art. Her research analyzes how medieval images of demons reveal a broad spectrum of religious and cultural ideologies and anxieties. Recently, her work on demons and labor, titled “Work is Hell: Demon Laborers in Late Medieval Art,” was published in Different Visions, a peer-reviewed, open access journal devoted to progressive art history scholarship.
Undergraduate students in her art history course, Illuminating the Middle Ages: The Art of Medieval Manuscript, will analyze UNT Special Collection’s rich collection of medieval manuscript leaves and fragments during multiple visits, and submit written responses explaining their reactions to the materiality of these objects with the option of submitting a creative assignment replicating the techniques they analyzed. During individual visits, students will also consult the robust collection of illuminated manuscript facsimiles.
Congratulations, Dr. Salazar and Dr. Seale! UNT Special Collections is excited to work with you and your students this semester!
