The American Academy in Rome announced today the winners of the 2025–26 Rome Prize, the rigorous competition supporting innovative fellows in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The Rome Prize equips artists and scholars with the time, space, setting, and colleagues to explore and create in the singular city of Rome. The thirty-five recipients will reside at the Academy’s eleven-acre grounds in the Eternal City for five to ten months, starting this September.
“The Rome Prize is one of the world’s most prestigious fellowship programs and provides the rare opportunity for scholars and artists across a range of subfields to collaborate with each other,” said Peter N. Miller, President of the American Academy in Rome. “Presented with the opportunity to deeply engage with their work and with that of the other fellows, Rome Prize winners return home with perspectives profoundly enriched by their immersion in an interdisciplinary community set in Rome. The winners form the heart of the Academy, embodying its ethos and extending its international impact through their work now and into the future.”
“Fellows credit their time at the Academy with reshaping their understanding of their disciplines, inspiring them to think more broadly and act more boldly in their creative and scholarly endeavors,” said Calvin Tsao, Chair of the Board of Trustees for the American Academy in Rome. “For decades, the most promising American scholars and artists have honed their craft at the Academy and have been transformed into luminaries for their disciplines. We are committed to supporting this evolution for years to come.”
The Rome Prize winners will be honored at the Janet and Arthur Ross Rome Prize Ceremony, taking place this evening, April 23, in the Proshansky Auditorium at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The program includes a Conversations/Conversazione on the state of contemporary literature, supported by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation and moderated by Miller, that features novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar (2018 Resident, Trustee), novelist Katie Kitamura (2024 Fellow), and novelist and essayist Valeria Luiselli. Attend in person or watch via Zoom.
Rome Prize winners are selected annually by juries of distinguished artists and scholars through a national competition. This year’s competition received 990 applications from applicants in 44 states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and 17 different countries. The acceptance rate was 3.54 percent. The recipients range from 28 to 71 years old, with an average age of 45.
This year, the American Academy in Rome introduces a pilot Rome Prize dedicated to the Environmental Arts & Humanities, designed specifically for collaborative efforts between artists and scholars working jointly on projects that help expand our understanding of the way human beings relate to, experience, and process their encounters with the natural world.
Joining the 2025–26 Rome Prize winners throughout the fellowship year is a program of invited residents: artists and scholars of international standing who live and work at the Academy for periods ranging from one to three months. The fellows and residents will engage one another as they rethink and expand the boundaries of their disciplines, challenge assumptions, and cultivate ideas that resonate far beyond the institution’s walls. The residents are Emily Greenwood (ancient studies), Susan Chin (architecture), Lesley Lokko (architecture), Christiane Gruber (art history), Louis Menand (critic), Christine Sun Kim (design), Lorraine Wild (design), Stanley Nelson (film), Brent Leggs (historic preservation and conservation), Glenn LaRue Smith (landscape architecture), Roxani Margariti (medieval studies), Mason Bates (musical composition), Rhiannon Giddens (musical composition), Osvaldo Golijov (musical composition), Subhankar Banerjee (photography), Cindy Sherman (photography), Juan Felipe Herrera (poetry), and Tony Cokes (visual arts).
A complete list of the 2025–26 Rome Prize winners and Italian Fellows is below. To read the names of the jurors who selected them, please download the press release.
Ancient Studies
Arthur Ross Rome Prize
Paula Gaither
PhD Candidate, Department of Classics, Stanford University
What Does an Aethiops Look Like? An Investigation into the Creation, Display, and Function of the Aethiops in Ancient Roman Art
Emeline Hill Richardson Rome Prize
Cynthia Liu
Lecturer, Department of Classics, University of Oxford
Latin Translations of Chinese Poetry
Samuel H. Kress Foundation Rome Prize
William Pedrick
PhD Candidate, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
Hanging Objects: Time, Space, and the Background in Greek Art and Archaeology
Andrew Heiskell | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
Dennis E. Trout
Professor, Department of Classics, Archaeology, and Religion, University of Missouri
Reimagining Rome: Emperors, Popes, and the Cult of the Saints
Donald and Maria Cox | Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Rome Prize
Darcy Tuttle
PhD Candidate, Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley
Ghost Justice: Crime, Community, and the Roman Cult of the Dead (1st Cent. BCE–3rd Cent. CE)
Architecture
Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize
Akima Brackeen
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Sonic Impressions
Arnold W. Brunner | Frances Barker Tracy | Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize
Cory Henry
Principal and Founder, Atelier Cory Henry, Los Angeles
Borders of Belonging: Rome’s Public Spaces as Arenas of Democracy and Dissent
Design
Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize
Heather Scott Peterson
Professor, Department of Architecture, Woodbury University
Etchings and Accretions: The Geomicrobial Transfiguration of Rome
Mark Hampton | Henry W. and Marian T. Mitchell Rome Prize
Ginny Sims-Burchard
Proprietor and Studio Artist, Ginny Sims Ceramics, Minneapolis
Moments as Sculptures
Environmental Arts & Humanities
Adele Chatfield-Taylor Rome Prize
Chuna McIntyre
Founder and Director, Nunamta Yup’ik Eskimo Singers and Dancers
Yup’ik Masks in the “Anima Mundi” of the Vatican Museums (collaborating with Sean Mooney)
Rome Prize in Environmental Arts and Humanities
Sean Mooney
Managing Director and Chief Curator, Rock Foundation, New York
Yup’ik Masks in the “Anima Mundi” of the Vatican Museums (collaborating with Chuna McIntyre)
Rome Prize in Environmental Arts and Humanities
Katharine Ogle
Lecturer, Department of English, University of Southern California
Piscis Romana (collaborating with Adam Summers)
Rome Prize in Environmental Arts and Humanities
Adam Summers
Friday Harbor Labs, Department of Biology and the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington
Piscis Romana (collaborating with Katharine Ogle)
Historic Preservation & Conservation
Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize
Claudia Chemello
Principal and Cofounder, Terra Mare Conservation, Charleston, South Carolina
Preserving Archaeological Remains in Situ (collaborating with Paul Mardikian)
Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize
Paul Mardikian
Principal and Cofounder, Terra Mare Conservation, Charleston, South Carolina
Preserving Archaeological Remains in Situ (collaborating with Claudia Chemello)
Landscape Architecture
Garden Club of America | Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize
Tameka Baba
Professional Practice Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture Section, Knowlton School, Ohio State University
Urban Tapestry: Exploring Soft Density in Rome’s Public Spaces
Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano | Kate Lancaster Brewster Rome Prize
Sean Burkholder and Karen Lutsky
Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania (Burkholder); and Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture, College of Design, University of Minnesota (Lutsky)
Timescapes of Lake Bracciano
Literature
John Guare Writers Fund Rome Prize, a Gift of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman
Maya Binyam
Assistant Professor, Department of Literature, Claremont McKenna College
Holy Fool: A Novel
Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, a Gift of the Drue Heinz Trust
David Keplinger
Professor and Director of MFA Program in Creative Writing, Department of Literature, American University
The More Difficult Life
Medieval Studies
Anthony M. Clark | Jesse Howard Jr. Rome Prize
Nastasya Kosygina
PhD Candidate, Program in Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine
Old Rome’s Floods and New Rome’s Earthquakes
Paul Mellon Rome Prize
John Mulhall
Assistant Professor, Department of History, Purdue University
The Republic of Translators: Latin, Greek, Arabic, and a New Age of Science, Philosophy, and Theology in the Twelfth Century
Modern Italian Studies
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
Charles Leavitt
Associate Professor of Italian and Film, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Notre Dame
The War Between Black and White: Racial Conflict in American-Occupied Italy
Marian and Andrew Heiskell Rome Prize
Kevin Martín
PhD Candidate, Department of Italian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Silenced Lexicons: The Historical Sociolinguistics of Italian-Occupied East Africa, 1882–1947
Musical Composition
Samuel Barber Rome Prize
Lembit Beecher
Composer, New York
A Book of Falsehoods
Frederic A. Juilliard | Walter Damrosch Rome Prize
Oswald Huỳnh
Composer, Portland, Oregon
Displacement and Diaspora: Flaming Forests, Desolate Dawn
Renaissance & Early Modern Studies
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
Eva Del Soldato
Associate Professor, Department of Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Lovesickness in the Forgotten Centuries
Samuel H. Kress Foundation | Millicent Mercer Johnsen Rome Prize
Margo H. Weitzman
PhD Candidate, Department of Art History, Rutgers University
Ekphrasis, the Senses, and Geographic Imaginaries: India Mediated by Early Modern Italian Merchants in the Medici Courts
Tsao Family Rome Prize
Daniel J. Sheridan
Independent Scholar, Knoxville, Tennessee
The Medicine of Life: Exploring Historical Perceptions of Well Being among Christians along the “Silk Roads”
Visual Arts
Harold M. English Rome Prize
Jennifer Bornstein
Professor, Department of Art, University of California, Irvine
Music Swims Back to Me
Jules Guerin | John Armstrong Chaloner Rome Prize
T. J. Dedeaux-Norris
Associate Professor and Area Head, Department of Painting and Drawing, School of Art, Art History, and Design, University of Iowa
Martyrs, Vessels, and Perpetual Becoming: An Emergence in Rome
Philip Guston Rome Prize
Andrea Fraser
Professor, Department of Art, University of California, Los Angeles
A Tour of the EUR
Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize
Liz Glynn
Professor, Department of Art, University of California, Irvine
The Spoils: A Countermonument
Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize
Heather Hart
Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Design, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University
Black Space
Philip Guston Rome Prize
Jefferson Pinder
Professor, Department of Sculpture, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Spazzino
Italian Fellows Program
Enel Foundation Italian Fellow in Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape Architecture
Mirko Andolina
Architect, Berlin; Cofounder, fabulism
CoolRome
Marcello Lotti Italian Fellow in Music
Marta De Pascalis
Artist, Berlin
Machine Music: Speculative Circuits and Oracular Sound
Franco Zeffirelli Italian Fellow in Medieval Studies
Stefano Milonia
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Musikwissenschaftliches Institut, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
A Medieval French Chansonnier in the Heart of Rome
Additional Programming
The Academy’s fellows and residents collaborate to rethink disciplinary boundaries, challenge prevailing assumptions, and cultivate ideas that extend far beyond the institution. The exhibition Roman Thresholds, on view April 24–May 25, 2025, at a83 in New York, showcases the enduring impact of the Rome Prize through an exhibition of prints, drawings, and collages by American Academy in Rome alumni. These works explore architectural forms to blur the lines between architecture, visual art, and design, all shaped by the transformative experience of the Rome Prize. Featured participants include Germane Barnes (2022 Fellow), Michael Graves (1962 Fellow, 1979 Resident), Katherine Jenkins (2023 Fellow), Yasmin Vobis (2017 Fellow), and David Weeks (2024 Fellow).
About the Rome Prize
Since 1894 the American Academy in Rome has awarded highly competitive fellowships that support advanced independent work and research in the arts and humanities. This year, the Rome Prize goes to thirty-five artists and scholars, who each receive a stipend, private workspace, and room and board at the Academy’s eleven-acre campus on the Janiculum Hill in 2025–26. This year’s competition received 990 applications, with an acceptance rate of 3.5 percent.
As the core of the Academy’s residential community, Rome Prize winners experience an incredible opportunity to expand their artistic and scholarly pursuits, drawing on the erudition and experience of their colleagues and on the inestimable resources of Italy, Europe, and the Mediterranean.