The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (the Center) welcomes SAH member Paul B Niell, PhD, to its 2024-25 roster of academic appointees. Paul was named the Samuel H. Kress Senior Fellow for his research, "Thatched Dwellings, Urban Lives: The Bohio and the City in the Late Spanish Colonial Caribbean."

From his published bio on the Florida State University website:
"Dr. Paul Niell focuses on the architecture and cultural landscapes of the Hispanophone Caribbean in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His work is informed by interests in colonial theory, material culture studies, cultural landscape studies, and critical heritage studies. He teaches courses on the architecture and visual cultures of the African Diaspora, the Spanish Colonial period, and Caribbean architecture in the department’s Visual Cultures of the Americas program."

His work has received support from the Council for Research and Creativity at FSU, the American Philosophical Society, and the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Niell was the recipient of SAH's 2022 Edilia and François-Auguste de Montêquin Fellowship. He first joined SAH in 2009. 

In addition to Niell's appointment, the Center also appointed former SAH member Abbey Stockstill, Southern Methodist University, as the 2024-25 Paul Mellon Senior Fellow for her work, "Color through the Seven Spheres: Materiality and Vision in Medieval Islamic Architecture." View a full list of the 2024-25 academic appointments, here. 

Since its inception in 1979, the Center has promoted the study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, urbanism, photography, and film from all places and periods through the formation of a community of scholars. In selecting its fellows, the Center seeks a diverse pool of scholars in the visual arts.  The Center is located in Washington, D.C.