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University of Florida professor Jillian Hernandez, PhD, will further her research at one of the world’s most extensive art and architecture libraries as a recipient of a Getty Center Scholars-in-Residence grant for 2021-2022.

Hernandez, an associate professor at UF’s Center for Gender, Sexualities and Women’s Studies Research, will have access to over one million volumes of books, periodicals, archival images and extensive collections of rare materials during a three-month term at the renowned Getty Research Institute.

Since 1985, the institute’s scholar-in-residence program has invited academics and artists from around the world to explore a central research theme, which changes annually. This year’s cohort of 16 scholars will focus on the concept of “the fragment” by studying objects that are physically incomplete or metaphorically disjointed from broader society. Hernandez will join researchers from France, Italy, Colombia, Argentina and Poland in collaborative discussion on the theme.

Hernandez’s work converges on issues of contemporary art, gender and ethnic studies, and contemporary politics. “My research is unique for fusing women’s, gender, and sexuality studies methods with art history and popular culture studies,” said Hernandez.

While participating in the Getty Research Institute Scholars Program from January to April 2022, Hernandez will study how contemporary multimedia artists, such as Yvette Mayorga and Sadie Barnette, incorporate feminine aesthetics in their work to drive political commentary. Her work will follow the traces of glitter, bedazzled jewels and frilly fabrics that pervade these artists’ aesthetics and place these fragments into a broader conversation of gender, race and sexuality. The time in residence will allow Hernandez to advance research for the manuscript of her second book, High Maintenance: Radical Femininity and the Transformation of Value.

On top of the extensive resources in feminist, African American and Latinx art within the Getty Research Library, Hernandez looks forward to accessing public resources in Los Angeles, such as the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California and the archives of Chicanx activist art at Self Help Graphics & Art and The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC).

“The city has a thriving contemporary art scene that will lend a rich context for the development of the book,” she said.

Hernandez is honored to be selected for the competitive research grant. “To have recognition from an internationally renowned institution in visual arts research like the Getty as a transdisciplinary scholar means a lot to me,” she said. “I am excited to have dedicated time and space for thinking and writing.”

Learn more about Hernandez’s research here.