Q&A with Julia Serio

Julia Serio is a senior who is graduating this spring with a major in art history and minors in museum and curatorial studies and art. She is also the office assistant for the Department of Art History. We recently spoke with her about her time in the program.

What was your favorite class in the art history major?

Why Art Matters with Professor Emily Capper: it was my first college-level introduction to art history and obtaining that base-level information on the topic through interesting discussions with my classmates and teaching assistant (Hannah Wiepke), while being able to consider local, on-campus art for the final paper really pushed me into declaring the major. That class also helped me gain perspective as to how my own work as an artist fits into the scope of art history, which I found to be extremely interesting.

Any other art history courses you enjoyed?

19th and 20th Century Art with Professor Laura Kalba, Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock with Professor Robert Silberman, Art on Trial and Contemporary Art, both with Professor Jane Blocker. Professor Blocker makes her lectures very engaging and insanely interesting, and with each class I found myself falling more in love with contemporary art!

Do you have any advice for other art history students?

Some advice I have for other art history students is to get to know your professors. Obviously, this worked out well for me since I see most of my professors every day in the office, but going to office hours, chatting with them before or after class, making any sort of connection with them makes them less intimidating and easier to work with. Additionally, having these connections can be beneficial for the future, as professors can write really great letters of recommendation and they know a lot of people in the field that they could potentially connect you with (I took advantage of both of these things!). 

A second and final piece of advice would be to try to take classes in as many different art historical eras and regions as possible because you might find out that you really like something you thought you didn't! Before taking classes on contemporary art with the Art History Department, I thought 19th century-era paintings were my favorite thing and that contemporary was just kind of weird, but after taking three courses on contemporary and really being able to see everything that it encompasses, it is now my favorite!