Profile

Polina Vishnevskaya is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University. Her research focuses on French art and visual culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of art and popular politics.

Vishnevskaya holds a B.A. with distinction in Art History from Saint Petersburg State University and an M.A. with distinction in Comparative History from Central European University. In her M.A. thesis, which was nominated for the Hanak Prize at the History Department, she examined the role of antisemitism in the construction of French national mythology during the Dreyfus Affair, focusing on the anti-Dreyfusard illustrated weekly journal Psst…! by Jean-Louis Forain and Caran d’Ache. In her research, Vishnevskaya employs an interdisciplinary approach, combining methods from art history, history, political science, and gender studies. 

Throughout her academic journey, Vishnevskaya has enhanced her education by participating in supplementary programs offered by institutions based in France, Colombia, Hungary, Russia, and Austria, where she studied French, art history, cultural studies, politics of memory, and art writing. She has also presented her research at international conferences in Russia, Italy, and Germany, with her recent studies exploring the representation of Marianne, the personification of the French Third Republic, within the anti-Republican visual discourse of fin-de-siècle France.