Graduate Student, American Studies
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Alan Wallach
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About
Lita Tirak is a PhD. Candidate in American Studies at the College of William and Mary. Her major field of specialization is Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Visual Culture in America, and her minor fields are the History of Cultural Production: Reconstruction-Television, and The Cinematic Spectacle: Early Optics-3D motion pictures(1950s).
Lita received her M.A. in American Studies at the College of William and Mary in 2010 for her thesis: "The American Grotesque: Free-Thought Idealism in Edward Bliss Foote's Science in Story." Previously, Lita received her B.A. in Studio Art at Mercyhurst College in 2000, with a concentration in Photography, and Animation--from credits earned at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania 1997-2000.
At the College of William and Mary, Lita served as Assistant Director of the College's annual Global Film Festival in 2009-2010. She continues as a consultant for the festival and as an instructor for a section of the class: Global Film and the City.
Between 2001 and 2008, Lita worked at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in the departments of Photograph Conservation, Education, Photography, and Development. She was the Curatorial Research Assistant for the 2005 exhibition, "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes," for which she investigated the lives of the daguerreotype sitters in the photographs. Her last position was in the Development Department as the Research Officer--where she investigated individuals, artists, collections, and foundations for the museum director, chairman of the board, curators, staff and trustee-run committees for the cultivation of new donors and sources of funding to the Museum. During her time at the Eastman House, Lita also introduced over forty motion pictures for the Eastman House's Dryden Theatre film program.
Lita has experience in the study and creation of antiquated process photographs including physautotypes and color infra-red photography. She also studied European Art History abroad through the program at Richmond: The American International University in London.
Currently investigating:
The identity of Southworth and Hawes' portrait sitter "Miss Hodges of Salem."
The Visual Culture of X-Rays in America.
Teaching experience:
The College of William and Mary
Teaching Assistant to Professor Robert Scholnick, 2011
The College of William and Mary
Keio University Classroom Instructor, Summer 2010
Gannondale, Harborcreek, PA
Studio Art Teacher, Summer 2001
Previous research:
Traced the provenance of an original Rembrandt etching from Erie, PA to Belgium as part of the art collection of the Rev. Jean Baptiste DeVille. (2000-2004)
"Face to Face: Identifying an Undiscovered Photograph of Thomas Cole." published in IMAGE, Vol. 43, No. 2, Autumn 2005.
Contributed research to the following publications:
"Imagining Paradise:The Richard and Ronay Menschel Library at George Eastman House" (2008).
"Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes" exhibition catalog (2005).
