KNOXVILLE — Adam H. Alfrey, a senior in art history at the University of Tennessee, will be one of three undergraduates to present a paper at the International Medieval Congress.
He used research from his summer 2002 internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Cloisters in New York City to write a paper about an altarpiece on canvas that depicts the Virgin Mary in the context of the Trinity.
His presentation is scheduled during a May 6-9 IMC meeting in Kalamazoo, Mich. The Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University sponsors the congress.
Alfrey and students from Brigham Young University and the University of Victoria in Wales were selected from more than 600 undergraduates who submitted proposals on various topics related to the Middle Ages.
Alfrey, a member of the UT Honors Program, is a top graduate in the College of Art and Sciences for 2004. He also presented a paper at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research in April 2004.
“Not only is Adam an outstanding student academically, but he is also a student with great potential. He aspires to scholarship and shows promise as an art historian who will contribute to the presentation and interpretation of works of art to the public,” Dr. Dorothy Habel, professor of art history, said.
Alfrey said his greatest accomplishments while in college were “working at the Met, in terms of a professional achievement, but also working as a full service mentor with ‘at-risk’ youths at Inskip Elementary School.”
“I aided four extremely creative students in painting large self-portraits on canvas,” Alfrey said. “As a result, both their self-esteem and attendance improved.”
Alfrey was the 2000 valedictorian at Knoxville-Central high school. He was the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum national art contest winner in 1999. He received a National Silver Key Scholastic Art Award for sculpture in 1999 and in 1998 he attended the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts.