The Department’s first digital defence: congratulations, Caylen Heckel!

The Department is pleased to announce that on May 27, Caylen Heckel successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled Masculinity and Exile: The Art of Benvenuto Cellini (Professor Una D’Elia, Supervisor). Heckel’s research explored the complex ways exile has shaped 16th century identity formation and gendered categories of citizenship, nationhood and belonging in Europe through the work and life of the Florentine artist Benvenuto Cellini.  Heckel, who is now teaching at the University of Toronto (Mississauga), has the distinction of being the first student in our Department to hold a remote defence, which included a total of six people linked through video conference. On behalf of our entire Department, we send our most sincere congratulations to Caylen.