​Rebecca Stasiunas is a Ph.D. student studying art and material culture in Early Modern New Spain. Her research explores global Baroque themes from an ecocritical perspective to consider the ways in which making and collecting in New Spain relate both to changing human understandings of the natural world and newly emerging colonial cultural identities.

Prior to beginning her Ph.D. studies, Rebecca received her B.A. in Art History and History from Gettysburg College (2016) and her M.A. from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture (2018). Most recently, she served as the curator of education at the Read House & Gardens. As such, her primary responsibility was to reimagine interpretive strategy. Through new research, tour development, staff training and exhibitions, Rebecca helped move RH&G towards an inclusive, visitor-driven experience emphasizing historical thinking skills, active learning and design study. Rebecca also has previously held appointments in the curatorial department at the Winterthur Museum where she curated exhibitions such as Hamilton & Burr: Who Wrote their Stories, in interpretation with the National Park Service at historic battlefields, and as a grant-funded oral history fellow at El Museo del Revolución in León, Nicaragua.