George R. Bent received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Oberlin College in 1985 and his Ph.D in Art History from Stanford University in 1993. He came to Washington and Lee University in that year and has been a member of the faculty ever since. Bent teaches courses in Medieval and Renaissance art history, and specializes in fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century Italian art and culture. He co-founded Washington and Lee’s interdisciplinary program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, chaired it from 2000 to 2003, served as Associate Dean of the College from 2003-2006, and chaired the Department of Art and Art History from 2001 to 2003 and 2008 to 2014. A two-time holder of Fulbright grants to Italy, he has written about artistic production, the function of liturgical images, and institutional patronage in early Renaissance Florence. He addressed these subjects in his book Monastic Art in Lorenzo Monaco’s Florence (published in 2006) and in his DVD lecture series, Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian High Renaissance, produced by the Great Courses Company in 2012. He then focused his scholarly attention on the subject of art for common viewers in late Medieval Florence between 1280 and 1430: his book on this material, Public Painting and Visual Culture in Early Republican Florence was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016.

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Mackenzie K. Brooks is Associate Professor & Digital Humanities Librarian at Washington and Lee University. At W&L, she is the Program Coordinator for the Digital Culture and Information program and teaches courses on humanities data, born digital archives, and scholarly editing. Previously, she worked as Metadata Librarian at W&L and at Loyola University Chicago. She received her MLIS from Dominican University. Her research focuses on digital pedagogy, text encoding and publication, and metadata. Her work appears in the Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, College and Undergraduate Libraries, and Art Documentation.

Dave Pfaff is the coordinator for Washington and Lee’s IQ center. He works to foster cross-disciplinary and quantitative approaches to inspire creativity and problem solving in teaching and research. Without his incredible knowledge and willingness to help our team, this project would not be possible.

Julia Brinker, class of ‘25, is a Cognitive and Behavioral Science major with an Art History minor. She’s from Towson, Maryland, and is involved with First Year Orientation Commitee and Reformed University Fellowship. She enjoys reading and crossword puzzles. JB

Alexandra Byler ‘25 is an Art History and Business Administration double major from Philadelphia, PA. On campus, she’s involved with the Students Arts League, the Outing Club, and Chi Omega Fraternity. She enjoys reading, baking, traveling, and hiking. AB

Madison Kwasnik ‘25 is a Politics major with an Art History and Law, Justice, and Society minor. She’s from Clarkston, Michigan and holds leadership positions within Mock Convention, LEAD, Student Arts League (SAL), and InGeneral magazine. She enjoys traveling and music.

Madeleine Lee ‘25 is an Art History and Business Administration double major from Memphis, Tennessee. She volunteers with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and participates in club swimming. Madeleine enjoys traveling and getting coffee with friends. She is an Art Historian for FLAW and enjoys researching and writing about various artworks.

Austin McBride class of ‘26 is a Computer Science major with a Philosophy minor. He’s from Boonton Township, NJ, and is a member of the Washington and Lee Student Led Consulting Organization. He enjoys music and golf.

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Abbie Marie McGuinness ’27 is from Virginia Beach, VA and plans to major in Art History with a double minor in Digital Culture & Information and Education. Beyond FLAW, she is the Hillel Engagement Chair and a work-study TA at Woods Creek Montessori. For fun, Abbie enjoys NYT games, musical theatre, weightlifting, and playing the piano.

Miles Bent graduated in 2017 with majors in Global Politics and English literature. Born and raised in Lexington, VA, he has spent a year in Florence, Italy, and an additional semester abroad in Rome, Italy, where he took courses in Italian and Art History. Miles is a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, played soccer for Washington and Lee for three years, and served as a Peer Counselor on campus.

Having lived in Florence, Miles assisted with the 2D Mapping aspect of the project, as well as working on several of the Italian sources, such as the Carocci Map.

Ava Boussy, class of 2023, majored in both Biology and Art History. A native of Westminister, Maryland, Ava competed on the women’s soccer team for four years while spending her free time sky diving and mountain biking. Ava helped design the database of artworks for the website and was instrumental in completing the final product.

Ava earned a Fulbright award to digitize sacred spaces in India and completed her work there in the spring of 2024.

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From New York, New York, Sonia Brozak graduated with a double major in Art History and Medieval & Renaissance Studies and a minor in German. She undertook two thesis projects, one of which deals with appropriationist art of the 1980s and the other looks at conceptions of spatial mapping in Early Modern Florence. She has spent time abroad in Münster, Germany; Florence, Italy; and Paris, France improving her German, Italian, and French. Sonia served as the Secretary of the Student Body at Washington and Lee and is a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends and reading The New Yorker.

Sonia helped to establish and refine the project’s initial goals, from the planned nature of the VR experience, to the educational benefits of the 2D mapping aspect. She contributed research pertaining to Florence that appeared in her senior thesis, worked on the 2D map alongside Miles Bent and Dave Pfaff, and translated Paatz’s German notes on the Bigallo.

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Alice Chambers, a native of Houston, Texas, graduated in 2020 with majors in English and Art History and a minor in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She spent time in the summer of 2019 gathering data for the project in Florence alongside Professor Bent and fellow contributor Win Gustin. She was a member of the University Singers and enjoyed studying abroad in England, Ireland, and the Netherlands while at W&L.

Katherine Dau graduated in 2019 with a double major in art history and German. She spent the summer of 2019 in Florence working on the project. She has presented Florence As It Was at the UNRH Conference in 2018 and at the Frick Collection in 2019. She has studied abroad in Siena, Italy, Berlin, and Göttingen, Germany. On campus, Katherine was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, the Outing Club, and ODK. During her free time Katherine enjoys travel, cooking, reading, yoga, and spending time outside with friends.

Katherine translated Paatz’ Die Kirchen von Florenz and updated the 2D map. She also modeled altarpieces and worked on site maintenance. Katherine received a Fulbright in 2019 and worked in Austria until the pandemic cut her time there short. She then studied at Cambridge University, where she received her M.Phil in Art History in 2021. She returned to W&L to serve in the Office of Development and is currently the director of W&L’s Annual Fund.

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Georgie Gaines graduated from W&L in 2023 with majors in English and Medieval and Renaissance Studies and a minor in Classics. Georgie compiled much of the information that forms the core of the database of artworks on the site.

Colby Gilley is from the humid hamlet of rural Molino, FL. While he naturally gravitated towards humanities classes at W&L, he was enamored by all facets of the human experience. While at Washington and Lee, he pronounced his investment in the University’s community, serving as a member of the FYOC, a University Big, and a leader on the Friday Underground team. Colby appreciates dusty old bookstores, the scent of wisteria on April evenings, and the sound of a reverberated guitar.

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Mary Catherine Greenleaf graduated in 2019, and hails from the icy Erie, Pennsylvania. She obtained a BA in Studio Art and Computer Science, with an independent focus on digital design. She used these skills to produce 3D models for different varieties of interactive entertainment. She has spent time abroad in Florence, Italy, and is familiar with the city as a whole. Mary Catherine was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, the Washington and Lee Students Arts League, as well as the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity.

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Win Gustin, class of 2020, was a European History major and Creative Writing minor. He’s from Mobile, Alabama and knows English and French. Win studied abroad in Paris, and went to Florence to work on the Florence As It Was Project in the summer of 2019. Win was the Vice President of the French Speaking Organization and the Secretary of Mindbending, and he has acted in Dracula, 1984, and The Cherry Orchard at W&L. In his free time, Win enjoys writing short stories and novels, hiking, alternate history, and acting.

On the project, Win helped with site updating and maintenance and he worked with integrating virtual reality technology into the Florence As It Was project. Win completed his J.D. degree at Boston University in 2024.

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Sam Joseph is from Dallas, Texas. Before attending Washington and Lee, he took a gap year and lived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where he taught English, cooked for and worked with orphans and in hospitals. Sam majored in Art History and minored in Classics, while focusing on his independent Engineering and Physics studies. Through Florence As It Was, Sam conducted project research in Florence, Italy. For six weeks, he worked in the Kunsthistorisches Institut library and photolibrary. He translated Medieval Latin documents and took pictures for photogrammetric modeling. As a part of Dr. Uffelman’s Technical Examination of 17th-Century Dutch Paintings course, Sam studied abroad in the Netherlands. Consequently, he has pursued the subject of digital archaeology and conservation and its relation to the Florence As It Was project. Sam headed the project’s 3D modeling division.

Sam created the first models for Florence As It Was, including the flagship model of the Bigallo and the numerous niches of Orsanmichele. He also helped write the FLAW guidlines and methodology, translated scholarly sources from Medieval Latin, and shaped the project’s goal from the very outset. Finally, Sam assisted in training MC Greenleaf for the 3D modeling project division. He recently completed his graduate studies in Architecture in Vancouver.

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Elyssa McMaster graduated in 2022 with majors in computer science and art history. On campus, she was a member of the cheer squad and volunteered as a DJ at WLUR. Elyssa received a Fulbright to Italy in 2022-23 and is currently in the Ph.D program in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University. She is an avid Philadelphia Eagles and New York Mets fan and enjoys kayaking and iced Americanos.

P.T. Meadors ‘24 is a senior from Charlottesville, Virginia studying art history and German language. P.T. serves as a translator of German texts on the project and operates our social media profiles on Instagram and Twitter. Outside of FLAW, P.T. likes to oil paint and listen to Beyoncé.

Ellie Penner, class of 2023, majored in Art History and minored in Poverty and Human Capability Studies. Ellie competed on the mock trial team where she served as the Vice President. Ellie concentrated her efforts on editing point clouds of buildings and creating photogrammetry models of artworks. She completed a Boren Fellowship in India in 2024 and is currently in the Ph.D. program for art history at the University of California, Berkeley. Ellie enjoys hiking, swimming, doing crosswords, and reading. EP

Haochen Tu graduated in 2022, with majors in Business Administration and Computer Science and a minor in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She’s from Suzhou, China. Haochen was a member of the FLAW team for the duration of her undergraduate career and was instrumental in refining the process of creating point cloud models of buildings. On campus, she was the Co-Chair of General Activities Board and Co-President of Club Badminton.

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Aidan Valente graduated in 2019 with majors in Medieval & Renaissance Studies and Art History and a minor in Classics. On-campus, he spent much of his time working on Digital Humanities projects involving the University’s Special Collections archives, where he worked during the summer of 2016. In Fall semester 2017 he was appointed to the Digital Humanities committee. Outside the classroom, he enjoyed participating in Catholic Campus Ministry, rehearsing with the University Singers, and seeing plays at the Blackfriars in Staunton with the Shakespeare Society.

Aidan worked mainly on the website–design, organization, troubleshooting, and general maintenance. He also translated documents to and from Italian, and contributed essays, such as the ones he wrote for the Bigallo. Upon graduation from W&L, Aidan first attended Cambridge University, where he received his M.Phil in art history, and then proceeded to the University of Chicago, where he is currently working toward his Ph.D.

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Kelsie Westmoreland, class of 2024, is a double major in Art History and Business Administration. Hailing from San Antonio, Texas, Kelsie enjoys cooking, ballet dance, reading, and spending time with her friends and family when she is not working on her school work. This is Kelsie’s first year working witht he Florence as it Was team. KW

Mickie Brown graduated from Washington and Lee University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science Honors in Geology and a minor in Computer Science. Following a brief stint working as a subcontractor for the US EPA, he returned to W&L to serve as the IQ Center Academic Technologist. When he’s not editing point clouds or working on 3D models for Florence as it Was, he can be found playing any manner of tabletop and/or video games, exploring the outdoors, or working to perfect a new recipe.

Erik Gustafson received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in 2012. He has taught Art History at Washington and Lee University, George Mason University, Fordham University, and the University of California, Berkeley, and held a Rome Prize fellowship at the American Academy in Rome from 2007-2009. An architectural historian of medieval and renaissance Europe and the Mediterranean, Erik is broadly interested in the engagement of historical viewers with architectural space. He is particularly interested in the phenomenology of historical religious experience, and in how the constant dialogue between traditions of the past and the needs of the present produced architectural culture. Erik has forthcoming articles on Franciscan architecture as charismatic space and on a Crusader portal reused on a Mamluk madrasa in Cairo, and is completing a monograph entitled Building Franciscanism: Space, Tradition, and Devotion in Medieval Tuscany.

Anne Leader is Visiting Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), where she is developing Digital Sepoltuario, an interactive website that chronicles the memorial landscape of medieval and Renaissance Florence.