The American Academy in Rome is proud to announce today the recipients of the 2026–27 Rome Prize and Italian Fellows Program. The fellowships are awarded through a national competition that supports innovative work in thirteen disciplines across the arts and humanities. The Rome Prize provides artists and scholars with dedicated time, space, and a transdisciplinary community in which to advance their work within the city of Rome. The Italian Fellows Program brings Italian artists and scholars into this shared environment, where they develop their own projects alongside Rome Prize Fellows. The thirty-one Fellows will reside and work at the Academy’s eleven-acre campus on the Janiculum Hill for periods ranging from five to ten months, beginning in September 2026.
“Coming from a wide range of disciplines and practices, the 2026-27 cohort is united by their commitment to intellectual generosity and to cross-disciplinary engagement," said Peter N. Miller, President and CEO of the American Academy in Rome. “The Rome Prize is a bedrock of the Academy's mission to support the most compelling minds in the arts and humanities from across the United States. We look forward to welcoming this cohort and to the questions, ideas, and discoveries that will shape their time in the Eternal City.”
“The American Academy in Rome has fostered creativity and intellectual rigor at the highest level for more than 130 years now. Each class of Fellows represents a special chapter in that history, yet together, they form a lineage that spans generations,” said Calvin Tsao, Chair of the Board of Trustees. “It’s a great privilege to welcome this year’s Rome Prize Winners who will carry forward a long tradition of artistic and scholarly excellence.”
Each year, Rome Prize winners are recognized at the Janet and Arthur Ross Rome Prize Ceremony, to be held this year on April 22 at 6:30 pm (ET) in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at the Cooper Union in New York City. The program is open to the public and will feature a Conversations/Conversazioni on the theme of “Conservation and the Brain,” supported by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation and moderated by President and CEO Peter N. Miller. Speakers include Whitney Museum conservator Carol Mancusi-Ungaro (2022 Fellow), Daphna Shohamy, Director and CEO of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, and New York-based visual artist Shahzia Sikander.
Throughout the 2026–27 fellowship year, Rome Prize winners will be joined by a group of invited Residents—accomplished artists and scholars who come to the Academy for residencies of one to three months. In this shared environment, Fellows and Residents engage in ongoing exchange, participate in public programs, and generate collaborations in Rome and throughout Italy, analyzing the relationships between past, present and future, fostering dialogue across disciplines, and supporting new approaches to creative and scholarly work.
Rome Prize winners are selected annually by independent juries composed of distinguished artists and scholars. This year’s competition drew 958 applicants from across the United States and U.S. citizens living abroad, with an acceptance rate of 3.03 percent.
The Academy supports thirteen disciplines: ancient studies, architecture, design, East-West Intersections, historic preservation and conservation, landscape architecture, literature, medieval studies, modern Italian studies, musical composition, Renaissance and early modern studies, and visual arts. As of 2025, environmental arts and humanities has been introduced as an additional field of study.
Italian Fellows are likewise selected through a national jury process. The disciplines represented this year are musical composition and modern Italian studies.
A complete list of the 2026–27 Rome Prize and Italian Fellow Program winners, along with the juries who contributed to their selection, appears below.
Ancient Studies
Samuel H. Kress Foundation Rome Prize
Rebecca L. Kerns
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati
Emeline Hill Richardson/Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Rome Prize
Francesca Lapasta
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Andrew Heiskell Rome Prize
Rachel Love
Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Harvard University
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
Jordan Rogers
Assistant Professor, Department of History, North Carolina State University
Arthur Ross Rome Prize
Tom Zhuohun Wang
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History and Classics, Yale University
Architecture
Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize
Neeraj Bhatia
Principal, THE OPEN WORKSHOP
Arnold W. Brunner/Frances Barker Tracy Rome Prize
Jess Myers
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Syracuse University
Design
Billie Tsien Rome Prize
Cameron Anderson
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Theater Arts, Brandeis University
East-West Intersections: Arts, Ideas, Attitudes
Tsao Family Rome Prize
Lisa Beyeler-Yvarra
PhD Candidate, School of Architecture and the Department of Religious Studies, Yale University
Environmental Arts & Humanities
Rome Prize in Environmental Arts and Humanities
Macarena Gómez-Barris
Writer, Professor and Inaugural Director, Center for Environmental Humanities, Department of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University
Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize
Faye Driscoll
Choreographer, Artist, and Director, Los Angeles, CA
Historic Preservation and Conservation
Adele Chatfield-Taylor Rome Prize
Erica Avrami
James Marston Fitch Associate Professor of Historic Preservation, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Columbia University
Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize
Ariel O'Connor
Objects Conservator, Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
Landscape Architecture
Garden Club of America Centennial Rome Prize
Caroline Lavoie, FCELA
Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, Utah State University
Prince Charitable Trusts/Kate Lancaster Brewster Rome Prize
Daví Parente Schoen
Associate, CMG Landscape Architecture, San Francisco, CA
Founder, Out Of Office (design/research/craft), San Francisco, CA
Literature
Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, A Gift of the Drue Heinz Trust
Lauren K. Alleyne
Executive Director, Furious Flower Poetry Center and Professor, Department of English, James Madison University
John Guare Writers Fund Rome Prize Fellowship, a Gift of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman
Yiyun Li
Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Creative Writing, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University
Rome Prize in Literature
Nathan Thrall
Writer, Jerusalem
Medieval Studies
Millicent Mercer Johnsen Rome Prize
Francisco J. Cintrón Mattei
PhD Candidate, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
Jon Paul Heyne
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Dallas
Modern Italian Studies
Jesse Howard, Jr. Rome Prize
Amara Lakhous
Trilingual Writer and Professor in the Practice, Department of Italian Studies, Yale University
Stephanie V. Love
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh
Marian and Andrew Heiskell Rome Prize
Barbara Ofosu-Somuah
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Romance Studies, Duke University
Musical Composition
Elliott Carter Rome Prize
Victoria Cheah
Composer; Assistant Professor, Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory
Luciano Berio Rome Prize
Udi Perlman
Composer, Berlin, Germany
Renaissance & Early Modern Studies
Paul Mellon Rome Prize
Andrew Berns
Professor, Department of History, University of South Carolina
Samuel H. Kress Foundation/Donald and Maria Cox/Anthony M. Clark Rome Prize
Maximillian Hernandez
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of the History of Art, Johns Hopkins University
Visual Arts
Philip Guston Rome Prize
Gregg Bordowitz
Artist, Brooklyn, NY
Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize
Tania Bruguera
Senior Lecturer on Performance and Media, Department of Theater, Dance and Media and Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University
Philip Guston Rome Prize
Taji Nahl
Artist, Philadelphia, PA
Jules Guerin Rome Prize
Kianja Harris Strobert
Assistant Professor, Department of Art, Film & Visual Studies, Harvard University
Italian Fellows Program
Marcello Lotti Italian Fellow in Music
Matteo Gualandi
Assistant HES, Département de composition et théorie, Haute École de musique de Genève
Franco Zeffirelli Italian Fellow in Modern Italian Studies
Maria Cecilia Lovato
Independent Researcher
2026 Rome Prize Jurors
Ancient Studies
Liana Brent, 2019 Fellow (Jury Chair)
Assistant Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies, Bates College
Sophie Crawford-Brown, 2018 Fellow
Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Rice University
Caroline Goodson, 2003 Fellow
Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor, American Academy in Rome
Jeremy Hartnett
Professor of Classics, Charles D. and Elizabeth S. LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Wabash College
Francesca Martelli
Professor, Department of Classics and the College, University of California, Los Angeles
Kelly Shannon-Henderson
Associate Professor of Classics, Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati
Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Dorothée Imbert (Jury Chair)
The Hubert Schmidt Chair in Landscape Architecture, The Knowlton School, Ohio State University
Leena Cho
Chair and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, University of Virginia
Chris T. Cornelius
Founding Principal, Studio:indigenous, Albuquerque, NM
Professor, School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico
Christopher Hawthorne, 2016 Resident
Senior Critic, Yale School of Architecture, New Haven, CT
Rashida Ng
Presidential Associate Professor of Architecture and Chair of Undergraduate Architecture, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
Ilaria Puri Purini
Andrew Heiskell Arts Director, American Academy in Rome
Design
Gregory Wessner (Jury Chair)
Executive Director, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
Ellen Lupton
Faculty, Maryland Institute College of Art and Curator Emerita, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Ilaria Puri Purini
Andrew Heiskell Arts Director, American Academy in Rome
Paula Scher
Graphic Designer and Partner, Pentagram, New York, NY
East-West Intersections: Arts, Ideas, Attitudes
Lihong Liu (Jury Chair)
Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures & Assistant Professor of History of Art, Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan
Jindong Cai
Professor of Music and Arts and Director of US-China Music Institute, Bard College
Caroline Goodson, 2003 Fellow
Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor, American Academy in Rome
Dorothy Ko
Professor of History, Barnard College
Environmental Arts and Humanities
Hideo Mabuchi (Jury Chair)
Professor of Applied Physics and Denning Family Director, Stanford Arts Institute, Stanford University
Subhankar Banerjee, 2026 Resident
Professor of Art and Founding Director, Center for Environmental Arts & Humanities, University of New Mexico
Giuliana Bruno, 2019 Resident
Emmet Blakeney Gleason Research Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Harvard University
Caroline Goodson, 2003 Fellow
Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor, American Academy in Rome
Ilaria Puri Purini
Andrew Heiskell Arts Director, American Academy in Rome
Historic Preservation and Conservation
Sanchita Balachandran, 2023 Resident (Jury Chair)
Director, Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, Washington, D.C.
Sarah Barack
Senior Conservator for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Caroline Goodson, 2003 Fellow
Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor, American Academy in Rome
Alex B. Lim
Architectural Conservator, Tumacácori National Historical Park, AZ
Ellen Moody
Project Specialist, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, CA
Literature
David Leavitt (Jury Chair)
Distinguished Professor of English, University of Florida
Jo Ann Beard
Ben Belitt Distinguished Visiting Writer, Bennington College
Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Associate Professor and Walker Percy Fellow, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Mark Danner
Professor and Class of 1961 Distinguished Chair in Undergraduate Education, Graduate School of Journalism and Department of English, University of California, Berkeley
Ilaria Puri Purini
Andrew Heiskell Arts Director, American Academy in Rome
Medieval Studies
Jonathan P. Conant, 2010 Fellow (Jury Chair)
Associate Professor of History, Director of Medieval Studies, Associate Professor of Classics, Brown University
Jill Caskey, 1993 Fellow
Professor, Graduate Department of Art History, University of Toronto and Department of Visual Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga
Robin Fleming
Professor of Early Medieval History, Department of History, Boston College
Caroline Goodson, 2003 Fellow
Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor, American Academy in Rome
Katherine L. Jansen, 1995 Fellow, 2014 Resident
Ordinary Professor Emerita, Department of History, Catholic University of America
Sharon Kinoshita
Distinguished Professor Emerita, Department of Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz; Co-Director, The Mediterranean Seminar; and Fellow, The Medieval Academy
Modern Italian Studies
Mary Ann Smart (Jury Chair)
Gladyce Arata Terrill Professor, Department of Music, University of California, Berkeley
Joshua Arthurs, 2016 Fellow
Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Toronto
Caroline Goodson, 2003 Fellow
Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor, American Academy in Rome
Robert S. C. Gordon
Serena Professor of Italian, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, University of Cambridge
Lara Pucci
Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Nottingham
Konstantina Zanou, 2023 Fellow
Associate Professor of Italian, specializing in Mediterranean Studies, Department of Italian, Columbia University
Musical Composition
Martin Bresnick, 1976 Fellow, 2000 Resident (Jury Chair)
Professor of Composition, Yale School of Music
Allen Anderson
Professor Emeritus, Department of Music, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Marcos Balter
Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition, Department of Music, Columbia University
Mary Jane Leach
Composer, New York, NY and Author and Editor, Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and his Music
Paola Prestini, 2022 Resident
Composer and Co-Founder and Artistic Director, National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY
Ilaria Puri Purini
Andrew Heiskell Arts Director, American Academy in Rome
Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
William Stenhouse (Jury Chair)
Professor of History, Yeshiva University
Brad Bouley, 2012 Fellow
Professor, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Caroline Goodson, 2003 Fellow
Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor, American Academy in Rome
Deborah L. Krohn
Professor, Chair of Academic Programs, Coordinator for History and Theory of Museums, Bard Graduate Center
Evonne Levy
Distinguished Professor of Early Modern Art, Department of Art History, University of Toronto
Pier Mattia Tommasino
Associate Professor of Italian, Columbia University
Visual Arts
Alex Da Corte, 2023 Fellow (Jury Chair)
Artist, Philadelphia, PA
Rochelle Feinstein, 2018 Fellow
Artist, New York, NY
Chrissie Iles
Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art
Daisy Nam
Zlot Family Director and Chief Curator, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
Ilaria Puri Purini
Andrew Heiskell Arts Director, American Academy in Rome
2026 Italian Fellows Program Jurors
Modern Italian Studies
Caroline Goodson
American Academy in Rome, Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor
Ester Coen
History of Modern and Contemporary Art, Accademico dei Lincei
Giuseppe De Luca
Professor of Economic History, University of Milan; Associated Researcher to the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute of Mediterranean Europe History (ISEM)
Musical Composition
Ilaria Puri Purini (Jury Chair)
American Academy in Rome, Andrew Heiskell Arts Director
Lucia Ronchetti
Music and computer music composer; from 2021 to 2024, Artistic Director of the Biennale Musica di Venezia
Emanuele De Raymondi
Music composer and sound artist, Rome