Courtney Wilder came to the Institute as a PhD candidate in history of art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her scholarship seeks to explore the visual and material culture of everyday life, especially as it was influenced by technological change. During her fellowship she worked on her dissertation titled “Novel Impressions: Prints, Textiles, and the Visual Economy in Europe, 1815–1851.” The dissertation explores the expanding imaginative possibilities that textile printing in particular represented as a powerful economic, scientific, and social force within a rapidly expanding consumer market. It also asks how these stylistic shifts were anticipated and driven by, as well as mirrored in, the broader cultures of print, an area similarly affected by new technologies and that was being directed at new audiences.
Courtney holds an MA in history of art from the University of California, Riverside, and a BA in history from Vanderbilt University. She has also held curatorial research positions at the Getty Research Institute, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.