Tara Kraft-Ainsworth is a PhD student studying the art and literature of interwar modernism in Europe and the United States. She completed her master’s at the University of Georgia in 2022; her MA thesis explored the visual and verbal intersections between Leonora Carrington’s 1939 short story, “La Dame Ovale,” and 1942 painting of the same title, Green Tea (La Dame Ovale), specifically the artist’s use of migration, myth, and media to compose a collective portrait of her geopolitical moment.

Ainsworth’s dissertation examines how Surrealist artists in France, and Europe more broadly, tried to come to terms with the quick readability of mass-produced literature and visual culture during the interwar period. She is particularly interested in how regional versions of the detective genre – from the British murder mystery to American hardboiled fiction – are translated to visual art and why artists saw the detective genre’s formulaic system as an apt conduit to debate modern modes of observation and attention.

In addition to her research, Ainsworth served as the Writing-Intensive Teaching Assistant for three years, and in 2023, she was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. Ainsworth also participated in the Future Faculty Fellow Program in 2023, a competitive, interdisciplinary program sponsored by the Graduate School and Center for Teaching and Learning that prepares graduate students for teaching careers in academia.