Katherine Mills

Katherine Mills is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Art History (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz), affiliated with the Department of Gerhard Wolf. Her work focuses on the intersection of natural disasters and artistic production in colonial Cuzco, Peru, examining how crises shaped urban and religious spaces through Indigenous, Spanish, and Afro-descendant artistic practices. She holds a PhD in History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University (2024) and an MA from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2014).

Research Interests: Latin American colonial architecture, ritual practices, and the socio-cultural impacts of natural disasters. She co-hosts the podcast Las cosas tienen vida, which won the RSA Grant for Public Engagement (2024).

• Education: PhD Harvard (2024), MA Madrid (2014)
• Awards: Thoma Fellowship, Porter Travel Grant
• Key Project: Postdoctoral study on Cuzco’s reconstruction after earthquakes, pandemics, and colonial conflicts

Labs/Teams: Part of the Kunsthistorisches Institut’s transdisciplinary research groups exploring transcultural art histories and digital humanities.