Research Interests:
Visual and material culture from the Russian Empire, the Russian Empire in a Global context (Britain, India, Europe), decorative arts, travelogues, history of collecting.
Education:
PhD Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literature and History of Art, Yale University
MA, M.Phil in Slavic Languages and Literature and History of Art, Yale University
M.A. in Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
MSt in Classical Archaeology, University of Oxford
BA in Art History and Russian, Sarah Lawrence College
Publications:
Dissertation:
Ink, Paint, and Blood: India and the Great Game in Russian Culture
Book Chapters
Forthcoming 2024: J. Webley, “Face Off: A Russian Prince at the Courts of India.” In Routledge Companion to Art and the Formation of Empire. Eds. Emily Burns and Alice M. Rudy Price (London: Routledge, 2024)
June 2023: J. Webley, “The Orient Estranged: Vasilii Vereshchagin’s Blowing from Guns in British India.” In Russian Orientalism in a Global Context. Eds. Maria Taroutina and Allison Leigh (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023)
Peer Reviewed Articles
Forthcoming 2024: J. Webley, Samuel Driver, Richard Wess, and Severyan Dyakonov. “Beyond Hacking and Western Hegemony: Russian Youth Culture in the Digital Sphere through the Audio-Visual Art Group, IC3PEAK.” Stanford U.S.-Russia Forum Journal.
Reviews
August 2024 : J. Webley, “Webley on Hardiman, ‘Courtly Gifts and Cultural Diplomacy: Art, Material Culture, and British-Russian Relations’” H-SHERA, H-NET. https://networks.h-net.org/group/reviews/20041491/webley-hardiman-courtly-gifts-and-cultural-diplomacy-art-material-culture
Conference Presentations and Talks:
2024 Freedom and Fantasy: Russian Travelers at the Borders of India, The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Fall Conference, Nov. 21-24.
2024 Face Off: A Russian Prince at the Courts of India, 19v: A Working Group on 19th-Century Russian Culture, The Jordan Center at NYU, May 22.
2024 Unnatural Borders: Russian Zoologists at the Edges of India, Yale European and Eurasian Studies Graduate Student Conference, May 8-9.
2023 The Crimean Theater: Vorontsov Palace and the Spectacle of Race. The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Fall Conference, Nov. 30-Dec. 3.
2023 Alexei Saltykov in India: The Great Game in the Russian Imagination. 19V Art History Seminar, Apr. 18.
2022 Adamantine Anxieties: The Orlov Diamond in the British Imaginary. Anglo-Russian Research Network, University of Exeter, Jul. 21-22.
2022 Reorienting Russian Art: Empire and Material Culture in the 19th Century. Yale University, New Haven, CT. Feb. 20.
2021 Magical Modernity and Colonialism in Gogol’s “Christmas Eve.” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference, Nov. 11-14.
2021 Ambiguity and Empire in Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s Portrait of Maria Alexandrovna. Kings & Queens Conference, University of the Highlands and Islands, May 30.
2020 Pink Explosion: The Avant Garde Aesthetics of New Russian Drag. The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Fall Conference, Nov. 5-8.
2017 Pearls, Progress, and the Past: Negotiating Meaning in Maria Alexandrovna’s Portrait. Russian Jewelry Art of the 19th and early 20th Centuries in a Global Context, Fabergé Museum, St. Petersburg. Nov. 9-10.
2017 Diamonds are Forever: Winterhalter’s Portraits of Victoria after the Revolutions of 1848. The Art of Revolutions Conference at the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. Oct. 26-28.
2017 Marketing the Monarch: Jewelry and Modernity in Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s Royal Portraits. Nothing in Moderation: Ancient to Contemporary Perspectives on Excess Conference at Bryn Mawr College, PA. Nov. 3-4.
Honors and Awards:
2024 Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Completion Fellowship, for writing, editing and defense of dissertation.
2024 ASEEES Internship Grant, for curatorial research at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
2024 ASEEES Graduate Student Travel Grant, to attend and present at the annual ASEEES conference in Boston, MA.
2024 MacMillan Center Conference travel grant.
2024 Yale Graduate Impact Fellowship, declined.
2022 Yale Graduate Impact Fellowship, for an internship cataloguing Ukrainian and Russian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2022 MacMillan Dissertation Fellowship, for research in Britain, India, France, and Finland.
2022 Russian Studies Dissertation Fellowship, for research in Russia.
2022 SHERA Graduate Scholar Research Grant, for research in India on the artist Nikolai Roerich.
2022 Yale History of Art Summer Funding, for a research trip to London to use the British Library and National Archives.
2022 FLAS Fellowship-Summer, funding to study Hindi.
2021 European Studies Graduate Fellow, network of fellows studying various aspects of Europe, Eurasia and Russia.
2020-2021 Stanford U.S.-Russia Forum Fellow, Fellow for the Arts and Culture Working Group.
2021-2021 Nina Berberova Fellowship, Fellowship to support graduate studies at Yale University.
2021 Virtual Summer Research Laboratory Associateship, at the University of Illinois.
2020 Yale History of Art Summer Funding, for language study.
2020 Russian Studies Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, for research in Russia, MacMillan Center, Yale University.
2019-2020 Charles Deere Wiman Memorial Fellowship, Fellowship to support graduate studies at Yale University.
2018-2023 Graduate Fellowship, Yale Slavic Languages and Literature (five years).
2019 Kathryn Davis Fellowship for Peace, Fellowship to cover full cost of Middlebury Russian Intensive (summer).
2019 Russian Studies Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, Fellowship for research in Russia (summer), Yale University.
2019 FLAS Summer Fellowship, Fellowship for language study (summer), declined.
2017 Harriman PepsiCo Spring Fellowship, Fellowship for research in Russia (summer), Columbia University.
2016 Harriman Institute Summer Language Fellowship, Funding for Russian language study, Columbia University.
Professional Activities:
Museum and Collections Experience:
2024-Summer Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, Intern associated with European Decorative Arts.
2022-Summer Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, Intern associated with European Paintings department, assisting in cataloguing Russian and Ukrainian art.
2016-2018 Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, NY, Curatorial Research Associate, catalogued late 18th to early 20th century paintings, drawings, and sculpture, including a significant donation of works by the Italian artist Tommaso Minardi.
2015-Fall Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, Intern in Social and Digital Media.
2013-Summer Dhiban Field School, site and object photographer, object cataloguer at excavation run by UC Berkeley in Jordan.
2011-Summer Nemea Field School, student excavator and museum cataloguer at excavation run by UC Berkeley in Greece.
2010-2011 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, volunteer object cleaning and cataloguing for research project.
Professional Memberships:
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL)
International Council of Museums (ICOM)
Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA)