Congratulations go to Meadows art history student, Lauren King, who is the 2018 recipient of the Larrie and Bobbi Weil Undergraduate Research Award for her paper, An Alternative View on the Roll-Brimmed Hat. The Weil Award is given annually for excellence in undergraduate research, and the recipient is an SMU student nominated by their faculty for outstanding research and writing of a term paper. This year, Dr. Stephanie Langin-Hooper, Assistant Professor and Karl Kilinski II Endowed Chair of Hellenic Visual Culture, nominated Lauren for her paper.
Lauren, could you please briefly tell blog readers about the topic of your paper?
The goal of my paper is to re-examine how we think about the roll-brimmed hat worn by Gudea in his diorite statues. If you’ve taken any ancient Near East art history class, or even an introductory survey of western Art History, you’ve probably heard of the diorite statues of Gudea. The hat he wears, called a roll-brimmed hat, is usually taught as a symbol of humility. My paper questions this interpretation, and proposes that the hat is actually a symbol of power and masculinity.