Emily Kaye Hagen

Doctoral Candidate, Department of Art History, Penn State University

I am an art historian of seventeenth-century Italian art and architecture. My research focuses on sacred architecture in the era of Catholic reform, with particular emphasis on the Paleochristian revival. I am interested in architectural projects that attempt to access the history of early Christianity in Rome, especially those that probe the subterranean remains of the ancient city. My dissertation examines the chapels and churches that celebrate rediscovered relics of early Christian martyrs and the culture of performance in seventeenth-century Rome.

Born in Wichita, Kansas and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, my intellectual formation is indebted to the dedicated public school educators and liberal-arts professors that nurtured my interests. I am the first in my family to pursue graduate study. As an educator, I recognize that my students's educational opportunities may not have included a robust humanities curriculum or access to art museums. My courses seek to add the skills of the art historian to my students's intellectual tool-kit so that they can carry these skills forward into their lives as informed consumers of visual media.

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CURRENT RESEARCH

My research situates Pietro da Cortona’s church dedicated to Saints Luke and Martina within the culture of Barberini architectural patronage and religious reform in seventeenth-century Rome. In 2022–2023 I spent eight months in Rome examining correspondence, manuscripts, and newsletters preserved in the Barberini family archives at the Vatican Library. My contextual analysis of SS. Luca e Martina demonstrates how architecture participated in the reinvention and revitalization of sacred history in the era of Catholic reform. I will present my second chapter at the 2025 Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting in Boston in a paper titled "Carpenter Bees: Barberini Patronage Underground at Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome." I will defend my dissertation at Penn State University in Spring of 2025.

TEACHING

In addition to the art history surveys, my teaching areas include early modern Italian art and architecture, the history and culture of southern Italy, and the art and architecture of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal early modern empires. I am particularly enthusiastic about leading study abroad experiences for undergraduate students in Italy. In the summers of 2022 and 2023 I taught for Penn State Global Programs in Salerno, Campania, and in 2024 I taught in Todi, Umbria, in collaboration with the Penn State Department of Spanish, Italian & Portuguese. I will continue this collaboration in 2025.

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