Kate Hodgson, a senior Art History major in the honors program.

Author: Kate Hodgson | Major: Art History | Semester: Spring 2023

My name is Kate Hodgson, and I am a current senior in the School of Art at the University of Arkansas, majoring in Art History and minoring in Anthropology. Over the past year, I have worked closely with my research mentor in the Art History department, Dr. Lynn F. Jacobs, and Dr. Larisa Grollemond, assistant curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum on my honors thesis project. After graduating this spring from the University of Arkansas, I plan to pursue graduate work in art history at the University of Oxford.

My honors thesis investigates the impact of the English occupation of France (c. 1419 – 1449) on manuscript markets in Rouen during the first half of the fifteenth century, as well as how the city’s impressive manuscript tradition prepared the city’s subsequent printing industry to capture the export market for printed liturgical books destined for England. Previous scholarship has cast Rouennais book production as a ‘poor third’ to ateliers in Paris and Lyon. However, the recent, global effort from libraries and museums to digitize their collections of manuscripts and printed volumes necessitates a reexamination of Rouen’s position in late medieval and early Renaissance book markets. Furthermore, an investigation into Rouen’s highly competitive position in manuscript and print industries casts new light on the transition from manuscript to print throughout Europe, as well as the contributions of France’s municipalities to medieval and Renaissance book markets.

I first approached Dr. Jacobs about my interest in writing an honors thesis on medieval manuscripts while taking her seminar class in the Fall of 2021. Dr. Jacobs was instrumental in helping me develop my topic. She also introduced me to Dr. Kathryn Rudy at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland as well as Dr. Grollemond at the J. Paul Getty Museum. My thesis topic stemmed from the incredible opportunity to work with Dr. Rudy and an international cohort of Ph.D. students and scholars of medieval art on the Digital Dirty Books project. For this project, I worked closely with digital repositories of medieval manuscripts and while conducting research, I came across a Rouennais manuscript that piqued my interest in the activity of Rouen’s manuscript workshops. I then began working closely with Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Grollemond to develop my thesis topic, and after a year of research, I have just completed the first chapter of my thesis.

One critical lesson that I have learned from my honors thesis project is that academic research is not an individual pursuit. Rather, art historical research is highly collaborative and benefits significantly from input and guidance from colleagues and mentors. Before beginning my honors thesis, I was intimidated by the process because I thought the process would be isolating. But I couldn’t have been more wrong! Both of my research mentors have been a constant source of support and guidance for the last year, and I know that my project has benefited tremendously because of the collaborative nature of my project.

This past week, I defended and passed my honors thesis. It has been such a challenging yet rewarding experience to work on this project for the past year and a half, and I feel strongly that I am now prepared to continue my research in graduate school. I am immensely proud of the scholarship that I produced and incredibly grateful for the guidance, support, and encouragement that I have received from my mentors, colleagues, and friends along the way. This project would not have been possible without receiving an honors college research grant which supported my research for the past academic year.