Kelli Wood Receives Early Career Excellence in Research and Creative Achievement Award
Each year the University of Tennessee College of Arts and Sciences seeks to recognize faculty members who excel in scholarship and creative activity while also being fully engaged in the other responsibilities of faculty jobs, primarily teaching and service. To this end, the college honors faculty in three stages of their research careers – early, mid, and senior – with awards for excellence in research or creative achievement.
The college presented an Early Career Research Award to Kelli Wood, who is the Dale G. Cleaver Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum & Curatorial Studies in the School of Art. Remarking on the award and her opportunity to work at UT, Wood stated, “The tenacity and dedication that faculty bring to Tennessee every day – in their research, to their students – has been inspiring. I’m so honored to be part of the Volunteer community.”
Wood received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2016 for her dissertation on the visual and material culture of games and sports and the resulting book, The Art of Play in Early Modern Italy, is forthcoming. Her work has been published in top tier journals and generously supported by Fulbright Italy, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, and the Michigan Society of Fellows.
Wood has received Samuel H. Kress grants from the Renaissance Society of America and the Italian Art Society and a full year NEH-Mellon Digital Publications Fellowship for her project turning Renaissance board games into video games. She guest curated a permanent wing of the Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, A Global History of Sport, which opened in 2022 in advance of the FIFA World Cup in Doha. In 2022-23 Wood was a Fulbright Scholar to India.