Sasha Whittaker

Sasha Whittaker is a Post Graduate Research Associate at Princeton University specializing in the history of photography and modern art. Her current book project analyzes fashion photographer George Hoyningen-Huene (1900-1968) within transnational contexts of interwar Europe and the United States, examining how his Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar photographs engaged with socio-political transformations.

Her educational background includes a B.A. in Art History from Macaulay Honors College at the City College of New York/CUNY and a Ph.D. from Princeton University (2025). Prior to Princeton, she conducted botanical photography research as a Fulbright Study/Research Grantee at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland.

Whittaker’s research bridges art history, fashion studies, and transnational cultural exchange, with particular focus on how interwar visual media reflected and shaped economic and political realities. Her methodological approach integrates archival analysis with critical theory to uncover overlooked narratives in photographic history.

She has received exceptional recognition through major fellowships:

• Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship
• Beatrice, Benjamin, and Richard Bader Fellowship at Harvard’s Houghton Library
• Wallis Annenberg Research Grant at USC
• Princeton’s Dean’s Completion Fellowship and Center for Digital Humanities Graduate Fellowship
• Donald and Mary Hyde Summer Fellowship for Research Abroad
• Eugene Bradford *60 Graduate Fellowship
• Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies support
• Fulbright Study/Research Grantee award

Whittaker’s ongoing book manuscript represents a significant contribution to understanding how fashion photography functioned as both cultural artifact and agent of change during a pivotal historical period, with potential implications for contemporary visual culture studies.