Cadet Nathalie Lavender ’26, an English major with a concentration in Art History and Visual Culture, worked with art history professor Lt. Col. Catharine Ingersoll for her SURI project in the summer of 2024.

Cadet Lavender developed an experiment to test if viewing art through virtual reality headsets could offer college students a similar experience to viewing art in person. Theoretically, VR allows for teachers to provide immersive and engaging art-viewing experiences for their students in a way that is accessible, interactive, cost efficient, safe, and dynamic. Cadet Lavender’s experiment model would test this hypothesis by exploring the physiological  and psychological benefits of using virtual reality through testing cortisol levels and having students fill out a subjective questionnaire before and after  three art-viewing conditions: in person, on a PowerPoint, and via VR headset.

Lt. Col. Catharine Ingersoll, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies

Lt. Col. Ingersoll’s research focuses on the art of southern Germany during the late medieval and Early Modern periods, particularly in terms of the interdisciplinary intersections among patronage, politics, religion, and visual and material culture. 

In addition to offering a regular rotation of art history and visual culture courses (such as The Language of Art and History of Art I and II), Lt. Col. Ingersoll is frequently sought out by cadets as an advisor to independent studies, Capstones, and Honors projects. She also spearheads the Art History and Visual Culture minor/concentration, maintains the @vmi_ahvc Instagram account, and is the faculty advisor to the Cadet Art Group.