Support our student scholarships and bursaries
The Warburg Institute is committed to attracting students from across the world, to study and learn at all levels, regardless of background or circumstance. Student scholarships and bursaries make it possible for students, who might not be able to otherwise, to attend the Institute. We strive to be a haven for people and collections who are displaced, offering a refuge as well as a cultural memory bank in line with the original mission of the Institute.
Thanks to a number of generous donations we are able to offer scholarships and bursaries to students studying at the Warburg Institute, which not only provide financial support, but as last year’s Peltz Scholar who is studying on the MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture course noted, "it places confidence in the student to continue with their education. Without the generosity of foundations or donors, some educational opportunities for many, as they were for me, are very difficult to obtain".
If you are interested in helping to aid student scholarships and bursaries please get in touch with us at warburg@sas.ac.uk.
Current students to have received scholarships
American Friends Scholarships
Amanda Lion | MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, 2024-25
Amanda Lion received her BA in Art History with honours from Vassar College in June of 2021. As an undergraduate, she developed a special interest in early modern Northern Europe, pursuing several courses in Dutch, Franco-Flemish, and German arts of the 14th through 17th centuries. One scholarly interest of hers is how and why particular moments in art history reference and adapt the visual language of their predecessors, as explored in her senior project on a collection of small watercolour illustrations by Victorian artist Edward Burne-Jones – known as The Flower Book – which considered this work’s formal and functional parallels to the convex mirror of Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait and Renaissance emblem books.
Since completing her bachelor’s, Amanda has studied thousands of cultural artefacts as a boutique auction company cataloguer. This role helped cultivate her object-led approach to art analysis and transformed her understanding of decorative arts and design. She now intends to apply the skills and knowledge gained through this professional experience to her graduate studies, as well as investigate other research interests informed by it, such as technical advancements in the production of art during the Northern Renaissance and evolving attitudes towards ownership of ideas and the role of authenticity in art market consumption throughout history.
At the Warburg Institute, Amanda looks forward to advancing her studies of the North while enriching her general scholarly practice through multidisciplinary Renaissance education. She is especially excited to explore the Institute’s vast library and archive, as well as the National Gallery’s exceptional collection of paintings. Her hope is to discover new avenues of research and foster a nuanced understanding of Renaissance culture and scholarship in preparation for future academic and professional opportunities. Amanda sincerely thanks the AFWI for their generous support of her studies, which facilitates her attendance of the historic Warburg Institute and allows her this unparalleled opportunity for intellectual growth.
Molly Goldberg | MA in Cultural, Intellectual & Visual History 2024-25
Molly Goldberg graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 2022 with a BA in Classics and Government. Her senior thesis examined Cicero’s conception of the populus' place within the Roman republic, focusing on the Commentariolum Petitionis, De Republica, Pro Murena, and Pro Plancio. She became interested in the Renaissance through working as a research assistant on the Patrizi Project, a research project that seeks to improve access to the work of the fifteenth century political philosopher Francesco Patrizi of Siena. Since joining the project in summer 2020, she has had the opportunity to learn about and practice reading manuscripts, collating and editing texts, and identifying sources, and she is currently translating Patrizi's magnum opus, De Institutione Reipublicae, into English.
At the Warburg Institute, Molly hopes to find many new interests, deepen her knowledge of political theory and palaeography, and is especially eager to explore the collections. As someone whose interests never seem to fit neatly into academic departments - for instance, her undergraduate research was advised jointly between the Classics and Government departments - the interdisciplinary nature of the program is also an excellent fit. Molly is extremely grateful to AFWI for their support of her graduate study, as the scholarship has erased what would have been a significant financial challenge and has made her confident in her ability to take full advantage of the program.
Peltz-Roden Scholarships
Laura Bennie | MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, 2024-25
Laura Bennie graduated from the University of St Andrews, in 2024, with a First-Class degree in Art History, having achieved a place on the Dean’s List in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years. She studied a broad range of topics in the course of her first two years, and chose to specialise in modules focusing on Classicism and the Renaissance in her honours years, including a monographic module on the work and influence of Raphael. In addition, she completed a summer study in Italian language and culture at Università degli Studi di Padova. Laura’s undergraduate dissertation was an examination of the work of Artemisia Gentileschi through a queer lens, placing her in the context of gender and sexuality in the seventeenth century Europe and interpreting her mythological and religious works with a view to how they subvert cis-hetero standards of presentation and behaviour. Laura’s work has looked at the making of art at the intersections of religious life and identity which is something she hopes to explore further.
At the Warburg Institute, Laura hopes to develop a greater depth of understanding of life in the early modern era and in particular how religious life, liturgy and hagiography shaped the visual culture of the period. She is particularly excited to make the most of teaching in languages and palaeography which she has not had the opportunity to study before at an advanced level. Alongside this she hopes to develop her academic skills, utilising the Warburg’s focus on primary source research, and identify potential research projects in preparation for PhD study.
During Laura’s time at university she has worked at a contemporary art gallery as well as in a community arts space in her hometown; these experiences have given her a taste of the joys and responsibilities of art curation and it is a passion she plans to nurture and apply to her period of interest with the teaching at the National Gallery.
Laura was honoured and relieved to be offered the Peltz-Roden scholarship, as this means she will be able to make the most of the fantastic opportunities at the Warburg without the stresses and strains of financial burdens and focus fully on her studies. It marks an exciting beginning to what will hopefully be a long and fruitful career in scholarship and academia.
Celia Donoso Clemente | MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, 2024-25
Celia received an undergraduate degree in Art History from the Complutense University of Madrid specializing in Early Modern Art. During her studies, she discovered her curiosity for iconology and Renaissance theatre settings, a topic that she would later address in her undergraduate thesis “The festive Florence of the Medici: The artists of the Medicean court and their theatrical sets (1539-1589)”. As part of her undergraduate degree, Celia pursued an internship in the Modern Painting Department at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, an experience that definitively directed her gaze towards the curatorship field.
After her undergraduate degree, she was awarded a scholarship to study a MA in Art Conservation and Restoration at the Istituto per l’Arte e il Restauro Palazzo Spinelli in Florence, complementing her theoretical training in Art History with the necessary tools to approach the study of art from a technical perspective. As part of her master’s degree, Celia pursued an internship in the Fine Arts Department of the City Hall of Florence, where she later undertook a one-year Research Fellowship to study the commissions and the conservation history of some of the Medicean sculptures in Piazza della Signoria.
By enrolling in the MA in Art History, Curatorship, and Renaissance Culture, Celia aims to expand her horizons through the Warburg Institute's interdisciplinary approach and exceptional resources, along with the National Gallery's curatorial expertise.
Celia is immensely grateful to the Peltz-Roden scholarship. This not only provides her the chance to take on a unique opportunity she otherwise wouldn't have had, but has also strengthened her confidence to continue her academic path. She is excited to embark on this journey and fully embrace her time at the Warburg Institute as a vital first step towards a cherished career goal devoted to research and curatorship in a museum context.
Mia McMillan | MA in Cultural, Intellectual & Visual History, 2024-25
Mia McMillan graduated from King's College London in 2024, with a First Class BA (Hons) in Classics with English. Having focused on Latin and Neo-Latin throughout her undergraduate degree, her final dissertation then examined Maffeo Vegio's Neo-Latin epic, the Astyanax (1430), examining its epic and tragic influences in the context of intertextuality, and whether it remains original in spite of frequent borrowing from both Seneca and Virgil. She also studied José Rodrigues de Melo's ‘De rusticis Brasiliae rebus’ (1781) with Dr Martin Dinter as part of a project to decolonise Latin literature. In her second year, she became a King’s Undergraduate Research Fellow, assisting Dr Dinter in research on intermediality during his 23/24 appointment as professeur invité at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris. Subsequently, she became interested in intermedial and transmedial trends in Latin literature, which she hopes to explore further during her Latin studies at the Warburg Institute.
She also wishes to develop her knowledge of art history, having studied it in her third year in the module ‘Ovid Through the Ages’, which examined media influenced by Ovid. This included a focused tour of the National Gallery, incorporating works from Piero di Cosimo, Domenichino, and Giordano among others. She looks forward to studying art history in further detail at the Warburg and utilising this in her intermedial studies, which she hopes to eventually pursue as a doctorate. This interest in interdisciplinary studies means the Warburg Institute is very compatible with her academic pursuits. She is extremely thankful to be awarded the Peltz-Roden Scholarship, which enables her to undertake her postgraduate studies.
Ruairi Sheanon | MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, 2024-25
Ruairí Sheanon graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2023 with a BA in the History of Art and Architecture, and French. His academic interests generally cover Early Modern Europe, and he is particularly interested in what images of this period reveal about the societies in which they were created, the place of art in public life, the ever-changing status of the artist, and the artist’s considered engagement with their audience.
Having spent a semester abroad studying at the Sorbonne Université, French art has especially appealed to Ruairí. He is particularly fascinated by the role of art in the construction of identity and personas, the significance of the foundation of the 'Académie de peinture et de sculpture', the influences of the School of Fontainebleau, and the potential connection between art and the emerging philosophies of the time, particularly those of the Age of Enlightenment and Descartes. His final-year dissertation, which was awarded a First-Class Honours, was entitled '"Je pense, donc je suis": The Uses of Meta-Pictorial Devices in French Painting, c. 1500-1793.’
Having been immersed in the bustling museum culture of Dublin, Paris, and other cities around Europe during his time as an undergraduate and having worked as a Tour Guide and Arts Facilitator in the National Gallery of Ireland, Ruairí also became intrigued by curatorial practice, by the ongoing research of collections and the display of art, and by a curator’s capacity to engage with, and inspire the public. Given that this MA programme is offered in partnership with the National Gallery, and that it offers an unparalleled level of teaching and guidance from curatorial staff, he is eager to get going.
He is also looking forward to making full use of the famous Warburg Library and resources to delve deeper into his research, while expanding on some elements of it within a broader European context. As an international student, receiving the Peltz-Roden scholarship has significantly eased his financial burden, enabling him to focus fully on his studies this year.
Jack Steiner | MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, 2024-25
Jackson Steiner graduated from Freie Universität Berlin in June 2024 with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy. His minors included Comparative Literature, Art History and additional coursework in Classical Philology with a focus on Ancient Greek. Jackson's dissertation on "Argumentative Structures in Plato's Symposion" examined the Socratic methodology as a key factor for understanding platonic dialogues and provided a philological analysis of the elenctic exchange. During his studies, Jackson's academic interests increasingly centred around the Art and Art History of the Renaissance, especially against the background of its re-exploration of Ancient ideas and formations of knowledge that structured reality in early modern times by examining reciprocal interactions of literary, philosophical, and artistic discourses with its visual representation.
The Warburg Institute's emphasis on interdisciplinary and philological training of Art Historians is a crucial reason why Jackson chose the program. The Warburg provides a framework in which he hopes to be able to examine artworks within their cultural context and complex intellectual structures to understand the coordinates of the time and space in which images and responses to images are located. Through his Master's studies Jackson aims to refine his research focus, paving the way for his PhD, where he intends to further explore interactions of images and the textual tradition in the Renaissance. Jackson is also excited to investigate the potential of curatorial processes to create knowledge by guiding a museum visitor through a pictorial structure and to study how communication with images can be facilitated through curation, especially concerning issues of accessibility and inclusion.
The Peltz-Roden Scholarship enables Jackson to pursue his education following his Art Historical role models and learning the craftsmanship of a scholar that hopefully may be able to contribute to the understanding of the Renaissance in the future. He is very grateful for this opportunity and the substantial support.
Francesca Vine | MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, 2024-25
Francesca Vine graduated with a BA in History of Art from The Courtauld Institute of Art in 2020. Her final-year dissertation was entitled, ‘Orate pro pictora: Plautilla Nelli’s Last Supper, Gendered Perceptions and Practical Realities’. In it she explored how bias and inaccuracies in secondary sources and a faulty translation had led to an undeserved negative perception of Nelli's work. She then undertook a fresh appraisal of Nelli's seminal painting, the newly-restored Last Supper, looking at its iconography, the circumstances surrounding its creation and the ways in which its design was tailored to the space for which it was intended.
Francesca then went on to work as Curator at the Quaker Tapestry Museum in Kendal, Cumbria where she curated special exhibitions on Quaker Samplers in the QTM Collection; Quaker Simplicity; John Dalton, Meteorology and Kendal (a Royal Society Places of Science exhibition) and ‘Sing and Rejoice’: George Fox, the English Civil Wars and the Beginnings of Quakerism, as well as the upcoming exhibitions Sampled Styles and Simplicity in Style: The Quaker Wedding.
Over the course of her BA at the Courtauld, Francesca developed broad-ranging interests in women artists, depictions of science and magic, as well as the reception of Classical art in the Renaissance, having previously studied both Classical Greek and Latin. These broad interests really attracted Francesca to the MA and she is looking forward to furthering them at the Warburg, making full use of its famous library. She was thrilled to find a course which combined academic rigour and research with practical classes in curatorship from leading industry professionals. As the only programme which so perfectly unites Francesca’s interests in Renaissance art and curating, it has the potential for imaginative interdisciplinary study, in addition to giving her the core language and palaeography skills which she will require for going on to in-depth original research.
Francesca is delighted to have been accepted and awarded the prestigious Peltz-Roden Scholarship. The financial viability of taking up her place was a huge concern and she is immensely grateful for the generosity of the funders in alleviating this worry.
Tessel Krijgsman | MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, 2024-25
Tessel Krijgsman received her undergraduate degree with honours from University College Utrecht in June of 2023. During her BA she explored a variety of disciplines, including museology, memory studies, phenomenological philosophy and art history of the Dutch seventeenth century. The cross-contamination that happened naturally whilst studying these subjects side-by-side inspired her greatly to delve into topics such as liminality in the museal space and the layered meaning of artistic objects. In a similar interdisciplinary vein, her thesis titled “‘Ars Imitatur Naturam’: An Art Theoretical Approach to Dutch Seventeenth-Century Landscape Painting” rethought the conception of ‘naturalism’ by analysing contemporary seventeenth-century Dutch art theory.
After graduating she followed an on-site program on Italian Art and History at two research institutes- KNIR and NIKI. Studying artworks of the Italian Renaissance 'in situ' greatly sparked her interest in the religious, philosophical and artistic complexities of this period. Combined with her affinity for an interdisciplinary approach to scholarship, she is delighted to follow the MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture. At the Warburg she hopes to deepen her knowledge of the Renaissance in Italy and the Lower Countries by understanding their visual traditions in their cultural and intellectual contexts. Especially the construction of landscape- either on canvas or empirically in the Italian villa- fascinates her greatly.
Artworks continue to be wonderful vehicles of rethinking the past, the present and, by implication, the future. Tessel is excited to experience at the National Gallery and the Warburg Institute at large how museums and novel approaches to visual history can aid or challenge this process. She could not have pursued that interest without the financial aid of the Peltz-Roden Scholarship and is therefore immensely grateful for this support.
Siobhan Butala | MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, 2024-25
In 2024, Siobhān graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, with a First in Classics and French, having focussed on literature of the Classical and Medieval periods. The process by which literary characteristics are rejected, recovered, and redefined across time, authors’ responses to contemporary understandings of genre, and the ways in which writers conform to or defy generic limits as a tool of their art, became the nucleus of her interests, with three related areas appealing to her curiosity: firstly, the use of ekphrasis (a literary representation of a visual artwork) as a means to import an additional or contrary aesthetic into written text, modifying its generic identity; secondly, the origination and evolution of historiography in the Classical period, as influenced by and defined in relation to existing genres; and thirdly, the use of generic features for didactic purposes. Joining the Art History, Curatorship, and Renaissance Culture MA will allow her to continue research in these areas by examining the Renaissance appropriation of Classical artistic values, and to enlarge her perspective by considering visual representations of textual properties like narrative and dialogue, as a counterpart to the phenomenon of ekphrasis.
Obtaining her BA had been a long road after significant ill health, and for Siobhān, represented the fulfillment of many years’ planning and striving. Having entered higher education at a later age, she expected that continuing her studies would be impossible, and in particular, that London institutions including the Warburg would be prohibitively costly. Being awarded the Peltz-Roden Scholarship has allowed her to realise a life opportunity she would not have had access to otherwise. She hopes to communicate this possibility to others who experience setbacks in education, and give them confidence in seeking assistance with studies they have a vocation to pursue. The generosity of the donors has been truly fundamental to Siobhān’s academic project.
Rubinstein Scholarships
Alexander Gould | PhD
Alexander Gould is an intellectual historian and missiologist researching the development of Christian culture and society between early modern Europe and North America. His doctoral research, made possible by the Rubinstein Scholarship, explores the use of agricultural metaphors in writings from 17th- and 18th-century New France, examining their relation to the colonial and religious realities of the time.
By analysing texts from missionaries, including the Jesuits and Sulpicians, as well as secular sources, Alexander’s PhD investigates how agricultural discourse reflects French efforts at Christianisation, cultural transformation, and land development in north-eastern America. He also attempts to reconstruct Indigenous perspectives on these changes, offering a fresh lens on environmental and societal shifts in the period. Combining literary criticism and colonial history, Alexander aims to shed new light on the origins of modern North American society and land economy during French colonisation.
Alexander’s MA thesis considered the role of Jesuit missionaries and French colonists as explorers, preachers, and husbandmen in New France between 1604 and 1629. His analysis of agricultural rhetoric in the Jesuit Relations and how it influenced colonial approaches to land use and religious conversion in the Acadian colony forms the foundation of his doctoral research.
Alexander completed his MA in Cultural, Intellectual, and Visual History at the Warburg Institute with the support of the Peltz-Roden Scholarship, earning a high distinction. He graduated from Magdalen College, University of Oxford in 2022 with a first-class degree in History and French.