Carolina Alarcón | SIU

Art History

Dr. Carolina Alarcón is assistant professor of Art History at SIU where she teaches courses in the early modern period. Her interdisciplinary research and teaching focuses on the role of prints in mediating cross-cultural exchanges in the development of science. Her book project, Materia Medica: Anatomical Illustrations in Early Modern Spain, ties agents of Spanish anatomical medicine to the broader history of natural science and medical knowledge in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Whereas her previous research was concerned principally with medical knowledge, her next project brings similar investigative approaches to bear on the sixteenth century chronicles of the conquest, people, and landscapes of early modern South America.

Professor Alarcón has presented her research at The Renaissance Society of America, The Association of Art Historians UK, and Scientiae> conferences. She has also organized two symposia exploring the intersections between art and science in the early modern world for the Lopez Piñero Institute for the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Valencia in 2016 and 2017, where she had been a Fulbright Research Fellow the previous academic year. Professor Alarcón was a Visiting Professor in Early Modern Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2018-2020.