Claire Ptaschinski is a doctoral student in the History of Art & Architecture. Her research interests address the role of Early Modern natural history and metaphysical theory in shaping a connection between meaning and materiality in the creation of 16th- and 17th-century chapels in Rome and in the global Catholic world. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Claire worked in the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago where she had the opportunity, among other things, to contribute to the development of a new Italian Paleography website, a digital resource for the study of the Newberry’s hybrid version of Georg Rem’s Emblemata Politica, and a print catalogue for the Fall 2020 exhibition, Renaissance Invention: Stradanus’s ‘Nova Reperta.’ Currently, she is developing a dissertation project that builds on the language of ecocritical art history and new materialism to consider the ways in which the design of Baroque chapel spaces presents a holistic and ecological worldview in line with Counter-Reformation thought.

Her MA thesis, “The Ecology of Chapel Design in Baroque Rome”, won the 2021 Early Modern Worlds Biennial Graduate Essay Prize. In this work, Ptaschinski builds on the language of ecocritical art history and new materialism to offer a fresh analysis of the Chapel of the blessed Sacrament in St. Peter's basilica, the Chapel of Saint Ignatius in Il Gesù, and the high altar of Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli.