Corita Kent: Religious difference and aesthetic sensibility

My proposed project concerns the life and work of the artist, educator, and Roman Catholic nun, Corita Kent. Kent's position within the Catholic church, her relationships with people across religious beliefs, and her lively engagement with the concerns of the mid-twentieth-century avant-garde makes her practice unique as a catalyst for examining the interplay of different faiths in the formation of aesthetic sensibilities. Utilising remote access to resources held at the Corita Art Center and those in the collection of Kent's papers at Harvard University's Schlesinger Library, I hope to build on the existing social historical analysis of Kent's experiences by paying careful attention to Kent's interactions with Catholics and across different faiths. Carrying out close investigations of textual and visual material will allow me to develop theological and philosophical concerns in an exploration of the significance of religious difference and collisions between different faiths in shaping aesthetic sensibilities.