2007 MAHS Graduate Student Presentation Award
The MAHS Graduate Student Presentation Award is granted to the best paper presented by a graduate student at the MAHS annual conference. Candidates are nominated by their panel chairs and the winning paper is selected by a committee of MAHS board members. The prize is generally a book in the winner's field of interest in art history.
The paper selected for the award at the 2007 conference in Indianapolis was by Kathryn O'Rourke, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, for her paper entitled "Modern Architecture and Modern Health in Mexico City."
O'Rourke's presentation focused on Carlos Obregón Santacilia’s building for the Secretaría de Salud in Mexico City. When completed in 1929, it represented the most visible and lavish sign of the revolutionary government’s commitment to public health and one of the first examples of Mexican modern architecture. The paper effectively demonstrated the architect's synthesis of abstract classical forms, reminiscent of Mexico's ancient past, with references to modern science in relief panels and sculpture. Inside, murals and rare stained glass panels by Diego Rivera reinforced the ideological program. The committee was impressed both by O'Rourke's effective analysis of Carols Obregón's architecture and the demonstration of her thesis that the Secretaría de Salud building represents a key to understanding the emergence of a Mexican modern architecture shaped by goals of the post-Revolutionary regime. The Midwest Art History Society is honored to be able to support and encourage such excellent work by graduate students.