Meet M.A. in Art History Alumna Elizabeth Asenas
Elizabeth Asenas, who hails from California, graduated from JCU with an M.A. in Art History in 2020. Her time in Rome sparked her interest in Manuscript Studies. Today, Elizabeth is a researcher specializing in the study of Italian Giant Bible manuscripts.
Tell us about yourself.
I’m originally from Ventura County, California, and moved to Long Beach in 2005 to begin my Bachelor’s degree in Art History at California State University. My undergraduate concentration was on ancient and medieval art, although I also spent some time working as a docent in a contemporary art cultural center in Anaheim, called Muzeo. I’ve started to become interested in history at an early age, and I knew I enjoyed looking at art. To me, art history is like a complex puzzle with lots of different avenues of study still waiting to be investigated.
What was it like studying art history in Rome?
I learned of John Cabot University while I was living with my sister and her husband during my undergraduate degree. They taught summer courses at JCU in the Communications department. My brother-in-law encouraged me to apply to JCU, and I ended up taking classes during the summers of 2011 and 2012. I was completely awestruck seeing Roman art and architecture on-site during the Medieval Rome and its Monuments course, especially the Basilica of Santa Prassede. It was then that I learned the importance of seeing something with my own eyes and relying on my own observations, rather than looking at it through a book.
Tell us about your thesis.
As an undergraduate, I loved the symbolism, layered meaning, and colors of church decoration. I figured I would continue to conduct research in church decorations in grad school, until I took Professor Lila Yawn’s manuscript course. I had a meaningful experience studying the manuscript fragments from the Biblioteca Comunale Lorenzo Leonj in Todi (Umbria). Being able to touch the fragments, with care of course, was not only a thrill, but it felt like a privilege. It was as if the fragments needed a voice, someone to document their existence. For that class, I researched a medieval Italian Giant Bible fragment and realized how precious and understudied the Giant Bible genre was. During the summer of 2019, Professor Yawn accompanied me to see one of the Giant Bibles in Rome, at the Biblioteca Vallicelliana, called “Ms A.1.” This inspired me to write my thesis, and I undertook a thorough examination of the highly unusual and wildly imaginative decorative vocabulary of the illuminated initials of this manuscript. I found that the language to describe the motifs used in the Vallicelliana Bible did not exist, so I charted where and how often certain motifs occurred throughout the manuscript, giving names to certain motifs when necessary.
Tell us about your master’s program. How did it prepare you for your professional life?
After hearing that JCU added an art history master’s program, I wanted to return to Rome to study again, so I applied and was accepted. I remember sitting with the MA faculty, and the first and second-year students during orientation. I had an overwhelming feeling that I had found “my people,” ambitious and intellectually stimulating individuals from all kinds of backgrounds. The caliber of students brought a wide range of perspectives, often thought-provoking and different than my own, but it was enriching and added a new dimension to learning in Rome.
I completed my master’s degree at JCU during COVID in Spring 2020. Since graduation, I completed several language courses to improve my Italian and moved to Milan in 2021. I got married in 2022, and then we welcomed a child in 2024. In the fall of 2021, I was awarded a scholarship to attend the international course, Trends in Manuscripts Studies: Sources, Issues, Technologies through the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio at the Abbey of Montecassino. Additionally, I have completed several courses through the Rare Book School, a non-profit independent school in the University of Virginia, such as, Scientific Analysis of the Book, Fragmentology, and Using Digitized Manuscripts. I was recently selected to receive the competitive William T. Buice III Scholarship to take another Rare Book School course in the upcoming year.
What classes and/or professors impacted you the most and why?
I have always appreciated the Baroque period and almost decided to go with a Baroque topic for my thesis. Professor Sarah Linford’s and Professor Laura Foster‘s Baroque classes were both mentally stimulating. The Baroque time period is so complex, yet both professors taught it in different ways, which made for a well-rounded education. I ultimately chose a manuscript project for my thesis, because of Professor Yawn’s research on Giant Bibles. Her work made it clear that there was much to learn about the Italian Giant Bibles, and I was excited for the challenge. I no longer consider myself just an art historian because I have had to become better educated in the fields of codicology, paleography, and Biblical textual studies in order to better understand the Italian Giant Bible genre.
What are your plans for the future?
For now, I am content with continuing my work as an independent cross-disciplinary researcher. I’m continuously researching aspects of the Giant Bible featured in my thesis and currently comparing material of the Vallicelliana Bible to other Giant Bibles from the same time period. I am also working with a JCU colleague on a passion project concerning the Italian Giant Bible genre in hopes of fostering more scholarship on the genre. Once this project has been completed, and once my child is a bit older, I would love to return to school for a Ph.D.
