Overview

In the summer of 2023, I studied abroad at the University of Oxford (Exeter College) and pursued independent research at the intersection of cultural linguistics and visual art under the supervision of Rachel Smith, one of their Art History lecturers. During the program, my supervisor and I had weekly meetings to discuss readings, construct arguments, and review my writing. I also discussed the linguistics portion of my research with Luna Filipovic, a linguistics professor at UC Davis and also a summer lecturer for Exeter.

Growing up in 3 different continents, I’ve always been really interested in the small nuances that make up cultural differences, and the role of language in sociology and perception. Additionally, being involved in visual arts has been a constant in my life, whether it's working on oil paintings or volunteering at art camps. Because of these experiences, I decided to focus my research project on the impact of cultural linguistics within fine art.

For my independent research tutorial, I studied the impact of cultural linguistics on the way various artists personify death in their paintings. In my final paper, I address questions such as the following: how does the grammatical gender of the word “death” in different languages influence whether it is personified as a man or woman? How can an understanding of regional figures of speech help us analyze the use of color? In my research, I analyze symbolism and storytelling from paintings spanning seven countries to identify patterns between the language spoken by the artist and the way they portray death.