Phone: (929) 284-8980
E-mail: pdiricksongarrett@utexas.edu
Website: pilardiricksongarrett.com
EDUCATION
2022 – present University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX
PhD candidate, Art History
Center for Latin American Visual Studies (CLAVIS)
Advisor: Adele E. Nelson
Dissertation: “An Architecture of Things: The Making of Race, Space, and Region in Exhibitions of Brazilian Popular Art, 1930-1965”
Qualifying exam topics:
19th and 20th century art and architectural histories of
Latin America (emphasis on Brazil); histories and theories of race and space in the Americas;
theoretical frameworks for the study of material things.
2016 – 2018 New York University New York, NY
Joint MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Museum Studies
Advisors: Miriam M. Basilio and Pamela Calla
Thesis: “Innovation to Maintain: Pinacoteca, MASP, and the Fall of Race from Brazilian National Cosmology, 1905-1950”
2011 – 2015 University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC
BA in History with Honours
Advisor: Alejandra Bronfman
Thesis: “A Natural Brilliance: Brazil’s Museu Nacional and the 19th c. Pursuit of National Consciousness”
2014 Universiteit van Amsterdam Amsterdam, NL
Certificate Programme in Humanities
UBC Go Global International Exchange Program
TEACHING
Spring 2024 University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX
Teaching Assistant
ARH 303 Survey of Renaissance to Postmodern Art
Instructor: Ann Johns
Fall 2023 University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX
Lead Teaching Assistant
ARH 301 Introduction to Visual Arts
Instructor: Ann Johns
Spring 2023 University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX
Teaching Assistant
ARH 303 Survey of Renaissance to Postmodern Art
Instructor: Louis Waldman
Fall 2022 University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX
Teaching Assistant
ARH 301 Introduction to Visual Arts
Instructor: Ann Johns
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
08/2024 – 05/2025 Blanton Museum of Art Austin, TX
Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Art of Latin America
Supervisor: Vanessa Davidson
2021 – 2022 Cinema Tropical New York, NY
Associate Director / Head of Publicity
2018 – 2021 Cinema Tropical New York, NY
Assistant Director
2018 – 2019 New York University New York, NY
Project Manager
Program: Indocumentales: An Itinerant Film and Conversation Series
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS)
2018 New York University New York, NY
Freelance Consultant
Program: Indocumentales: An Itinerant Film and Conversation Series
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS)
2017 – 2018 New York University New York, NY
Graduate Research/Curatorial Assistant
Exhibition: Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Department of History
Supervisor: Ada Ferrer
2017 – 2018 New York University New York, NY
Graduate Curatorial Assistant
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies / North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Supervisor: Jill Lane
2015 – 2016 Museum of Anthropology Vancouver, BC
Curatorial Intern
Exhibition: Amazonia: The Rights of Nature
Supervisor: Nuno Porto
SCHOLARLY PAPERS (SELECT)
Invited Paper:
2026 “As ‘coisas do lugar’: Abelardo Rodrigues e as trajetórias diplomaticas em torno da fundação do Museu de Arte Popular do Recife,” Seminário Geopolíticas das artes: coleções e
reconfigurações do campo artístico, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (August)
TALKS AND CONFERENCES (SELECT)
Speaker:
November 11, 2021 Maysles Documentary Center New York, NY
Post-screening discussion: “Images Towards Freedom: The
Documentary Shorts of Orlando Bomfim Netto”
Moderated by: William Plotnick, Cinelimite
April 2017 University of Connecticut Storrs, CT
Borderlands: A Critical Graduate Symposium
Panel: Social Justice in Praxis: Arts, Communities and Institutional Change
Paper title: “Critical Museum Pedagogy and Social Action in Brazilian Museums: A Strategy for Anti-racist Confrontation”
Moderator:
June 17, 2021 Cinema Tropical (virtual conversation) New York, NY
Screening series: Mexico on the Hudson: Portraying the Mexican
Experience in New York City
Panel: “Portraying the Mexican Experience in New York City
from Outside the Community - A Conversation with Three Non-Mexican Directors”
Moderated conversation for an online audience with directors David Riker (La Ciudad), Jim McKay (En el Séptimo Día) and Alexis Gambis (Son of Monarchs).
June 9, 2019 New York Botanical Garden Bronx, NY
Exhibition: Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx
Moderated post-screening discussion with João Vargas Penna, director of Landscape Film: Roberto Burle Marx.
SERVICE
• PhD Co-Chair, Graduate Student Art History Association (GSAHA), UT Austin, 2024-25
• Departmental Representative, Graduate Student Assembly (GSA), UT Austin, 2024-25
• Graduate Representative, Search Committee for Postdoctoral Fellowship Position in Art History, Department of Art and Art History, UT Austin, Fall 2024
PUBLICATIONS
“Lais Myrrha.” Social Fabric: Art and Activism in Contemporary Brazil. Edited by Maria Emilia Fernandez, Adele Nelson, and MacKenzie Stevens. Austin, TX: Visual Arts Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 2023.
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND HONORS
• Center for Latin American Visual Studies Fellowship, AY 2026-27
• Brazil Center Field Research Award, LLILAS, UT Austin, Summer 2026
• Center for Latin American Visual Studies Summer Research Grant, Summer 2026
• Department of Art and Art History Research Travel Award, UT Austin, Summer 2023; Fall 2023; Summer 2024; Fall 2024; Summer 2025; Fall 2025; Summer 2026
• Graduate School Outstanding Graduate Research Fellowship, UT Austin, AY 2025-26
• Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellowship in the Art of Latin America, Blanton Museum of Art, 2024-25
• David Bruton Jr. Endowed Graduate Fellowship, 2022-23; 2023-24; 2024-25; 2025-26
• Jaqueline Barnitz Graduate Scholarship in Art History, 2022-23; 2023-24; 2024-25; 2025-26
• Jack G. Taylor Memorial Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Fine Arts, 2024-25
• Dorothy Jean Krueger Graduate Fellowship, 2024-25
• Graduate School Summer Excellence Fellowship, UT Austin, Summer 2024
• Graham Williford University Engagement Fellowship, Blanton Museum of Art, 2023-24 (declined)
• Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS), LLILAS, UT Austin, Summer 2023
• Graduate School of Arts and Science Fellowship, New York University, 2016-17; 2017-18
LANGUAGES
English (native fluency)
Brazilian Portuguese (advanced fluency; heritage speaker)
Spanish (reading fluency; working conversational)