As spring unfolds in Rome, the American Academy in Rome welcomes a distinguished cohort of scholars and artists for the second half of its 2025 fellowship season, beginning this month. These individuals bring a wealth of knowledge and creativity across disciplines, enriching the Academy’s vibrant intellectual community. Their diverse projects will contribute to a rich interdisciplinary dialogue in the months ahead.
Megumi Aihara and Dan Spiegel
The San Francisco–based architects Megumi Aihara and Dan Spiegel, winners of the 2025 Garden Club of America/Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize, explore postfire landscapes in film, literature, and design. Their project examines how communities rebuild and redefine their identities after environmental devastation.
Craig Perry
The historian Craig Perry, awarded the 2025 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize, investigates medieval African societies and their connections with the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds. His research sheds light on trade networks and political economies through overlooked Jewish merchant letters and historical records.
Krupali Krusche
A recipient of the 2025 Adele Chatfield-Taylor Rome Prize, Krupali Krusche is associate professor at the University of Notre Dame. Her research examines how Renaissance architects, including Palladio, studied the Roman Forum. Through digital and hand-drawn measure drawings, Krusche aims to reconstruct the Forum’s medieval layers and their influence on early modern architectural theory.
Michelle JaJa Chang
An associate professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Michelle JaJa Chang is the 2025 Arnold W. Brunner/Frances Barker Tracy/Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize Fellow. Her project, “Material Resistance to Symbolic Form,” investigates how labor traditions in Jesuit missionary sites challenged the idealized architectural principles of the Jesuits, using models to analyze these tensions.
Francesco Urbano Ragazzi
The curatorial duo Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, comprised of Francesco Ragazzi and Francesco Urbano, join AAR in March as 2025 Italian Fellows for Curatorial Research. With backgrounds in philosophy and media studies, they have curated projects for institutions such as MMCA in Seoul, ISCP in New York, and the Bucharest Biennale. Their research at AAR explores national identity in contemporary Italian art, drawing from Carla Lonzi’s writings and collaborating with artists to articulate an Altérité Italienne.
Pietro Airoldi
The architect Pietro Airoldi, the 2025 Fondazione Sicilia Affiliated Artist, arrives at AAR in March from Palermo, where he leads Studio Pietro Airoldi. Known for his sensitive approach to historical architecture, he has transformed spaces such as a 1930s Sicilian apartment, preserving traces of its past while introducing contemporary elements. Airoldi also teaches at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo. During his residency, he will explore the integration of modern design within Italy’s architectural heritage.