Gianna Tully ’24
Major: English; Minor: Art History
Project: “Unveiling the Masks of the Women Artists of Second Wave Feminism”
Advisor: Elizabeth Gray, associate professor of English and writing arts
Gianna Tully’s inspiration for her SOAR research came from a previous project she completed in her Intro to English Studies class in 2022, looking at a theme through the lens of both visual art and poetry. Taking this a step further, Tully ’24 conducted a biographical study and analysis of 14 women artists who created art in response to second wave feminism. However, instead of looking at the themes of different art produced, she focused on the women who created the art.
In the summer of 2023, Tully—a first-generation college student—split the 14 women into two groups: poets and artists. Each week, she examined one poet and one artist, reading and taking notes on their biographical information, the inspirations for their art, the prominent themes in their work, their connection to second wave feminism, and their legacy.
“I started to unveil their self-defined identities,” Tully says.
She then compared those identities to how the women were perceived in the public eye—both in their time and now. Toward the end of her research, Tully chose 4 of the 14 women who represented the “overlooked identities” as artists she was trying to highlight.
One of the obstacles Tully faced in her research was the ability to put an end to the project. Nonetheless, she will utilize her research as a foundation for her honors project to look at the women’s specific genres of poetry or art in a more in-depth study.
Tully commends her advisor, Professor Elizabeth Gray, for her exceptional knowledge of both the visual arts and poetry.
“Professor Liz has a large bank of information that extended beyond the confines of the subject matter,” says Tully. “Anytime I had a question about one of the artists, she always seemed to know the answer. If not, she always knew where to look. That was a great asset for the research process.”
Tully presented her research at a gallery talk in September as part of DEI’s Friday Forums at ɫ.
“This experience provided me with so many new tools in the field of research,” Tully says. “I feel more confident in my abilities to do close studies on produced texts and analyze what I have learned, and to undertake larger projects in the future.”