Art history alumna Dr Fiona Sit embarks on a second major fellowship to research migrant artists in 17th century Rome

Dr Fiona Sit, a graduate and Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, was recently awarded a Paul Mellon Fellowship to develop her research.

This is the second major fellowship Fiona has received in connection with her work on seventeenth-century Rome, having been awarded a research residency at the British School at Rome last year.

Fiona’s new project – Migrant Artists and the Shaping of the Refugees’ Grand Tour in Protestant Britain – explores encounters between British elite tourists and migrant artists in Rome.

Dr Fiona Sit is a graduate of the MA History of Art programme at the University of Leeds (2018), where she also completed a PhD before becoming a Visiting Research Fellow in 2024. Previously, she also held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute (LAHRI).

The Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art supports early-career researchers undertaking innovative projects in British art, architecture and visual culture over a six month period. Fiona said of her Fellowship, awarded in April of this year:

“My research examines the works of migrant sculptors fleeing from Naples to Rome after the Neapolitan Revolt of 1647 against Spanish colonisation.

“It centres on how refugees’ identities and the relationships between artists, patrons of the viceregal court and the Neapolitan people evolved in the 17th century.

“Over the course of my Paul Mellon Fellowship, I will carry out research into how identities were formed and understood across a range of displaced groups, from elite travellers to migrant workers and refugees.

“The project involves archival research on the Venerable English College in Rome, as well as an examination of how materials and natural resources contributed to shaping the identities of marginalised figures.

“This research will contribute to a monograph exploring the role of materials in the formation of identities among displaced communities.”

Inside the archive at the Venerable English College in Rome

Archive at the Venerable English College in Rome. Photo by Fiona Sit.

In 2025, Fiona received the Rome Award for a three-month research residency at the British School at Rome which she completed in December.

This project – Refugee Identities and Sculptural Practice in Seventeenth-Century Rome – looked at how cultural identities were shaped among migrant and refugee sculptors in early modern Rome, particularly those arriving from Naples and Tuscany. Fiona said:

“Fieldwork made possible by my stay at the British School in Rome from September to December 2025 was central to the project.

“Walking along Via Giulia allowed me to reconstruct the movements of artisans through the neighbourhood – from their workshops to the patrons’ palaces, and towards the port of Ripa Grande, where marble entered the city.

“Experiencing these spaces at the scale of the body, observing the architecture and noting the clustering of national churches offered insights that no map or documents can fully convey. Visiting churches, museums and galleries, where migrant artists’ works are now housed, further revealed how material choices shaped the production and reception of their sculptures.

Via Gulia, Rome. Photo by Fiona Sit.

“By returning to a moment when ideas of ‘refugee’, ‘belonging’ and ‘extraneity’ were beginning to take shape in Europe, we can better rethink the complexities of migration today.

“The experiences of early modern migrants on Via Giulia remind us that mobility has long produced identities that are hybrid, dynamic and materially grounded – forces that continue to shape the complexity of cultural landscapes in our time.

“I am excited to build on the research I began during my time in Rome and explore these questions on a broader scale through the Paul Mellon Fellowship. By examining the experiences of travellers, migrants and refugees in early modern Europe, I hope to shed new light on how movement and cultural exchange shaped identities in the past – and why these histories still matter today.”

Early printed sources in the archive of the Venerable English College in Rome. Photo by Fiona Sit.

Dr Richard Checketts – Associate Professor in Renaissance Art and Culture in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies and one of Fiona’s PhD supervisors – said:

“Along with other colleagues who have worked with Fiona – as a Masters student, completing her PhD, and while a valued member of our teaching team – I am absolutely delighted by the recognition of her achievements with the Paul Mellon fellowship and the recent British School at Rome residency.

“Fiona is an exceptionally gifted scholar with remarkable commitment and focus, and a passion for communicating and sharing her research. The work on migratory identities for the Mellon fellowship pushes at disciplinary boundaries in the humanities. And at its heart is a set of distinct skills in close looking, in thinking about materials, material infrastructures and practices of making.

“Complementing the very diverse kinds of research undertaken in the School, the project underlines the traction and vitality of a critically informed social history of art in engaging with profound questions, both in past cultures and in the here and now.”