Darian Dveris

Darian Dveris is a first-year Ph.D. student in the RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space and Culture program in Art History at SMU. She received her M.A. in Art History from UC Davis in 2025 and her B.A. from Pepperdine University in 2020. Her research focuses on representations of animals in 18th-century French art, particularly in relation to the rise of Enlightenment materialist philosophy. She is also interested in the rococo and the decorative arts more broadly, especially interiors and their ornamentation. Her master's thesis examines Christophe Huet's Grande Singerie at the Château de Chantilly, exploring Huet's satirical monkey paintings and the relationship between animality and social decorum in the 18th century.