Victoria McCraven

SOAS University of London Postgraduate Award, SOAS University of London - Art and Architectural History

I’m originally from Cheshire, Connecticut and recently graduated from Dartmouth College with a major in geography and a minor in art history. At Dartmouth I founded D-Step, Dartmouth's step team and reactivated Dartmouth's Pi Theta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. My senior year I worked directly with the curator of American Art as the Homma Family Intern at the Hood Museum. At Dartmouth I have made continued efforts to bring attention to black artists, designing my own exhibition Black Bodies on the Cross which examined the intersections of religion, colonisation and blackness. As geography major and art history minor, I continued to study history through an interdisciplinary lens and found that through studying the history of art, I could bring a new perspective to our understanding of African-American History and culture. I hope to study lost chapters in our history such as the American Colony of Liberia, examining the colony and its significance through 19th century photography. Studying in London is an amazing opportunity for growth and intellectual inquiry and SOAS provides the best resources to study early West African photography and colonisation. In London, I look forward to becoming more involved in performance arts. In my free time I enjoy hiking and nature walks and as a photographer and vlogger I cannot wait to document my Fulbright journey.