Congratulations to Professor Subhankar Banerjee, whose classes “Introduction to Art and Ecology” and “Biodiversity, Creative Practice, Justice” explored nature journaling as both a visual and literary practice, culminating in a showcase last week. Banerjee, Art professor and founder and director of the Center for Environmental Arts & Humanities, described the motivation behind the project as creating “to have an alternative outlet to engage, not only a class project, but for their own life, and their own journey of learning at UNM,” particularly in the context of students living in “the digital space.” He further says, “Teens, as well as young adults, are spending increasingly more time on the internet.
MFA Alum Emma Ressel Awarded Postdoctoral Fellowship at Center for Regional Studies
Emma Ressel is an artist working with large format film photography, re-photography, and archives. Her current work researches natural history collections to examine how we describe nature to ourselves over vast timescales. Ressel earned her BA in Photography at Bard college and her MFA here at the University of New Mexico. She has exhibited solo shows at The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and Strata gallery, Sante Fe, NM. Her work is in permanent collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
Recently, Ressel was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Central for Regional Studies. The CRS (Central for Regional Studies) annually awards this fellowship to support scholars whose research aligns with the center’s mission to discover, create, preserve, disseminate and promote a culture of broad inquiry within and beyond the UNM community. With regards to this fellowship, Ressel says, “I am very thankful to the Center for Regional Studies for supporting this work. At a time when arts funding is scarce-both for artists and institutions-I hope this project demonstrates the value of continued artists research into photo history and museums in the region. I see so much potential for artists to work with museums and archives to deliver research and histories to a wider audience in inventive and effective ways, and I look forward to honing my work at this exciting juncture of disciplines.”
The CRS postdoctoral fellowship includes a $50,000 award, distributed in 12 monthly payments, along with a $2,000 research stipend to support travel and related expenses. Fellows also receive dedicated office space at the Center for Regional Studies. Congratulations Emma! We are incredibly proud and look forward to seeing your future work with this fellowship.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
1) Learn more about Emma on her website: https://www.emmaressel.com/about
EXPLORE the work of Emma Ressel by following on Instagram @emma.ressel.
Art MFA Student, Hanna Brody, featured in The New York Times
Art MFA student, Hanna Brody, recently completed a painting for author T Kira Māhealani Madden that was featured in The New York Times. Her book, titled “Somebody Killed Her Assailant. Was Justice Served?” has a featured review written by Catherine Chidgey and original art by UNM MFA student Hanna Brody.
Analisa Peña awarded Hulsman Undergraduate Library Research Award’s Emerging Researcher
Congratulations to Analisa Peña, who was selected as the 1st place winner in the 2026 Hulsman Undergraduate Library Research Award’s Emerging Researcher category regarding her work, The Many Faces of Christ: Understanding ‘Trifacial Trinity’ by Gregorio Vasquez Arce y Ceballos.



