By Victoria Hochman, Manager of Public Relations and Strategic Planning, Sarah Lawrence College

Apr. 27, 2016:  Jerrilynn Dodds, member of Sarah Lawrence College's art history faculty and former dean of the college (2009-2015), has been named a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

One of 178 scholars, artists, and scientists to receive the coveted award, chosen on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, Dodds will use the award to conduct research for her book "Romanesque, Identity and Difference on the Iberian Peninsula."

"We are thrilled that Jerrilynn Dodds, a distinguished art history scholar and member of our faculty, has received this honor," said president of the college Karen Lawrence. "Her scholarship has provided a deeper understanding of medieval art and culture that is relevant to our understanding of significant issues facing us today."

Successful candidates for Guggenheim Fellowships were chosen from a group of nearly 3,000 applicants in the foundation's ninety-second competition. Fifty scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, seventy-one different academic institutions, twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces are represented by this year's fellows.

Dodds's work has centered on transculturation--in particular, among Christians, Jews, and Muslims--and how groups form identities through art and architecture. She is the author of the books Architecture and Ideology in Early Medieval Spain and New York Masjid: The Mosques of New York and co-author of the book The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, among other books and publications.

She is a regular lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and local organizations including the Bronxville Public Library.

Pictured here: Jerrilynn Dodds.

Photo courtesy Sarah Lawrence College