Exonian Connie Sjödin wins prize for academic writing

Exeter graduate student and Amelia Jackson Scholar Connie Sjödin (2021, DPhil candidate in History of Art) has been awarded the 2024 Rhonda Saad Prize for her article, ‘Baya in Vogue: From Oriental Textile to Transcultural Tissage’.

Connie’s work delves into the diverse styles of textile evident in the art of Baya Mahieddine, a prominent member of the Aouchem art movement in Algeria in the 1960s. Challenging conventional interpretations, Connie’s paper emphasises Baya’s agency in creating her distinctive visual language, advocating for a nuanced understanding that moves beyond simplistic cultural narratives.

Connie is the first graduate student from the University of Oxford to receive the Rhonda Saad Prize since its inception in 2010. Awarded by the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey (AMCA), the Prize celebrates excellence in modern and contemporary Arab art, paying tribute to the late Ms Rhonda Saad’s pioneering research in the field.

In an interview with AMCA, Connie shared insights into her thesis, which offers a decolonial microhistory of the mid-century Algerian art movement Aouchem. Her work seeks to provide historical and contextual analyses of the Aouchem movement, shedding light on its pivotal role in Algeria’s cultural decolonisation and artistic production.

Congratulations to Connie on this remarkable achievement!

You can read an interview with Connie about here work here.

Connie Sjödin