Cambra Sklarz, who earned a doctorate in art history at UC Riverside in 2024, was named a finalist for the 2026 McNeil Center for Early American Studies Dissertation Prize.

The center and University of Pennsylvania Press award the prize to a dissertation on the histories and cultures of North America in the Atlantic World — the network of societies, economies, and cultures created by Atlantic Ocean travel from 1492 to 1850. Historians use “Atlantic World” to describe how Europe, Africa, and the Americas were deeply interconnected through exploration, trade, colonization, migration, and slavery during that period.

Dissertations completed within the last two years are eligible for the prize.

Sklarz’s dissertation, “The Artist and the Ecosystem: Strategies for the Use and Reuse of Materials in Early America,” focuses on artists’ use of recycled, repurposed, and quotidian materials in their work from the period of roughly 1750 to 1860. 

Sklarz recently completed a short-term, grant-funded position as a research assistant in American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to that role, she spent two years as the Diane and Michael Maher Curatorial Fellow of American Art at the Harvard Art Museums.

Sklarz also holds a law degree from UCLA.