Graduate Scholar Recipients

Ariel Body
Ariel Body is a former desert dwelling photographer, designer, and coffee drinker. Having earned a BA in Design Studies in Digital Visualization in her homeland at Arizona State University, she is currently pursuing an MA Multidisciplinary Design from the University of Ulster in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With this background and passion for graphic design and photography, she is self employed as a freelance visual communicator, exploring new and innovative ways of visual storytelling. Currently, her postgraduate work and research explores the future of the photographic medium by investigating the relationship between the real and imagined by challenging the traditional techniques of photographic imaging, particularly in relation to the use of computer generated imagery and digital manipulation.

Sabrina Cavins
Sabrina Cavins is a dance artist, film-maker and scholar currently completing her Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Sabrina received her BA in dance from Columbia College Chicago and remained in Chicago for 11 years pursuing her dance career. She has performed with several choreographers and companies including Darryll Jones, David Dorfman, Atalee Judy, Michelle Ellsworth, Erika-Wilson Perkins, The Dance COLEctive, and RTG Dance. Her critically acclaimed choreography has appeared throughout the United States and has received special honors, residencies, grants and awards. Most recently Sabrina has entered the world of dance for camera where her films have been presented at the Foursite Film Festival and San Souci Film Festival. In addition to her artistic endeavors, Sabrina is also a graduate instructor of dance at the University of Colorado teaching modern dance and ballet.

Marina Kassianidou
Marina Kassianidou is a practicing artist that lives and works in Limassol, Cyprus, and London, UK. She is a PhD candidate in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London. Her research, which incorporates practice and theory, develops ways of thinking around relationships between mark and surface through painting, drawing and collage. In 1998 she received a CASP/Fulbright scholarship to study in the USA. She graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Studio Art (with Distinction) and a BS in Computer Science (with Distinction). Upon graduation, she was awarded the Arthur Giese Memorial Award for Excellence in Painting by the Stanford University Department of Art and Art History. She obtained a Master in Fine Art degree from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London. She has participated in group exhibitions in the UK, USA, Cyprus, Israel, Germany and France and has had solo exhibitions in Nicosia and London. Her writings have appeared in the arts journals Arteri (Cyprus, UK) and ArtSEEN (Florence, London, New York).

Alanya Knowles
Alanya Knowles graduated from the Interior Architecture program at the University of New South Wales in 2003 with first class honours and the University Medal. After working for several years in a corporate and retail interior design role, Alanya moved to Paris and spent three years working in the communications team for the Pritzker Prize winning French architect Christian de Portzamparc. The most notable project in which Alanya was involved was the Oscar’s Museum in Hollywood for the Academy of Motion Pictures, for which Steven Spielberg was the client. Since returning to Sydney in 2009, Alanya has worked full time on her PhD candidature on the topic of ‘starchitects’, focusing on how the phenomenon of fame influences the design process. She has been awarded the UNSW Dean’s Scholarship for her postgraduate studies. Alanya also lectures in Visual Communications, and is involved in several local government Design Panels. Alanya has been a contributing writer for the Australian magazine InDesign, and is also a member of the strategy and research team at the interior architecture firm Geyer in Sydney.

Pamela Mullins
Pamela’s work examines the concept of Africana art within museums and academic writings from the late 1800′s to present day. She is interested in looking at how Africana art is described and displayed and what the role of colonialism, race, global economy and national systems are in the Western representation of Africana objects on Western Stages. She graduated from the Goldsmiths University of London in cultural studies where she wrote on the objects found within the British Museum. Her current research focuses on the earliest collection of Africana objects in the U.S. and how they were collected and displayed.

Kristina Nasi
Kristina Nasi is a Master’s candidate in Spanish at the University of Colorado Denver. Her academic work has focused on Latin American Studies and Women’s Studies and her Master’s Thesis looks at the changing role of Eva Perón in Argentina, from her rise to notoriety in the 1940′s to her most recent treatment in Argentina during the Bicentennial celebrations in 2010. Kristina’s interests involve the ways in which women are portrayed in society and how those images contribute to women’s self-construction. More specifically, the research she has done on Eva Perón has led her to investigate further the role of women in Argentine political culture as well as the importance of physical appearance for women in power. Kristina enjoys integrating her background in Spanish language and literature with her passion for contemporary women’s issues.