©Leslee Broersma, Senaatszaal, Universiteit Utrecht, Nederland Senate Hall, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands – Founded 1636

In early November 2025, I was invited to CENTER’s Review Santa Fe. Being my first time in the Southwest and experience on the Reviewer side of the table, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As an educator, I love reviewing work; when others hear “critique,” they may shy away, but I love the experience of helping others through their ideas. Review Santa Fe is an incredibly welcoming experience, carefully cultivating meaningful projects and conversations. Living in a very rural area, this was an inspiring opportunity to see what is on the horizon of the photo world. Today is the last day of this work, so check out the past week!

Today, we’ll be sharing Leslee Broersma’s Tracing Academia. 

©Leslee Broersma, Museu da Ciência #1, Universidade de Coimbra Museum of Science #1, University of Coimbra, Portugal – Founded 1290

Leslee Broersma received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado Boulder. She went on to teach photography and digital art at the University of Maryland, the University of Denver, and the University of Colorado. Grants received by Ms. Broersma include a WESTAF/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a New Forms/Andy Warhol Foundation Project Grant, a Colorado Council for the Arts Fellowship, and numerous faculty grants from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her photography and video work has been shown at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts; the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut; Temple Art Gallery in Philadelphia; the University of Colorado Boulder Art Museum; and the Aspen Art Museum. Her video piece in fear is part of The Anthony and Beth Terrana Collection in Boston, MA. In 2017 and 2025, her work was selected for CENTER Santa Fe’s Review Santa Fe. She has attended several artist residencies in Europe that have allowed her to work on her ongoing series, Tracing Academia. Ms. Broersma taught at the University of Colorado Boulder until 2019 and currently works full time on her photography projects.

Follow Leslee on Instagram: @lesleebroersma

©Leslee Broersma, Museu da Ciência #2, Universidade de Coimbra Museum of Science #2, University of Coimbra, Portugal – Founded 1290

Tracing Academia

 Tracing Academia documents the interior physical spaces of universities that shaped the modern world. The importance of independent thought and free expression grew out of these institutions. The project was conceptualized as I visited universities when my children were touring colleges. As an educator and as a parent to college-aged children, I was struck by the role that academic interiors play in defining the college experience.

As I reflected on the history of the university, I began to travel to some of the oldest universities in Europe. Inside these buildings, I see the juxtaposition of medieval and contemporary. The project documents the classrooms, museum collections, and in-between spaces of universities. Today’s students, characterized by their multi-ethnic, gender-fluid makeup, their informal attitudes and attire, and their hi-tech adornments, live and work in university spaces imbued with formality, under the gaze of portraits of mono-ethnic men in rooms designed for students using pen and ink.

Academic interiors provide the scaffolding for Western intellectual thought. The room design, the furniture that remains, and the curated collections echo those who passed before me. The museum collections pay tribute to the Western history of conquest and colonization. The architecture and design of academic institutions shape the interior cerebral landscape of students who pass through these halls. For centuries these students became political, artistic, scientific, and technological leaders, creating the landscapes of the world today.

The photographs speak to the current political crisis and the attacks on culture, history, art, and science. The foundations of education and democracy, and universities themselves, are at risk. Knowledge and truth are suppressed, intellectual leaders are ignored, and facts are erased.

©Leslee Broersma, Museu da Ciência #3, Universidade de Coimbra Museum of Science #3, University of Coimbra, Portugal – Founded 1290

Epiphany Knedler: How did your project come about?

Leslee Broersma: Tracing Academia was conceptualized as I visited universities when my children were choosing colleges. The first academic interior I photographed was the Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester in New York. Soon thereafter, as my youngest child left for college, I spent several months visiting universities in Western Europe. I began to reflect on the history of the university and the role that academic interiors play in defining the college experience and the role Western universities play in shaping our civilization. As an educator, the work draws from and is influenced by my interactions with students in the college classroom.

©Leslee Broersma, Sala dei Quaranta, Palazzo del Bò, Università di Padova Hall of Forty, Palazzo Bo, University of Padua, Italy – Founded 1222

EK: Is there a specific image that is your favorite or particularly meaningful to this series?

LB: That is a tough question to answer. I have more meaningful attachments to some images than others. The first university in Europe that I photographed was the University of Coimbra in Portugal. Recently, I went back to Coimbra to do additional research and take a fresh look at the interiors of the science buildings. I discovered that some of the rooms I previously photographed have been re-curated. I am fortunate that I documented those rooms.

One image that I have a strong connection to is Senaatszaal (Senate Hall) at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Photographing in the country from which my grandparents immigrated, while immersed in the Dutch landscape, was meaningful. The symmetry of the Senate Hall mirrors the rigidity of academia, while the predominance of male portraits reflects how academia is infused with cultural bias.

©Leslee Broersma, La Sala di Laurea di Medicina, Palazzo del Bò, Università di Padova The Medical Degree Hall, Palazzo Bo, University of Padua, Italy – Founded 1222

EK: Can you tell us about your artistic practice?

LB: Educated in the field of photography, I began my career shooting in the streets of San Francisco. Over the years, my photographic work has drawn from personal experience through storytelling and the family album. Social constructs are central to my work: how we define, label, and image the world. My photographic and video work examines realities that have been named, categorized, and neatly put into a box. I seek to disturb, wanting an emotional response – a push-and-pull moment.

In addition to Tracing Academia, another project I’m working on is The Rio Grande Project: Land and Border. I have been traveling to the Texas/Mexico border photographing the Rio Grande. The project brings perspective on how rivers, specifically boundary rivers, both create and destroy communities; it leads us to recognize the poignancy of the river’s bond to the lives stolen at the border.

©Leslee Broersma, Accademia Belle Arti di Bologna Academy of Fine Art, Bologna, Italy – Founded 1710

EK: What’s next for you?

LB: I return to Europe for 5 months in February of 2026. In addition to continuing to work on Tracing Academia, I will be working on a new project alongside climate scientists, documenting the effects of climate change in the Mediterranean Sea region. Increased drought, floods, and extreme temperatures are changing the landscapes of the region.

©Leslee Broersma, Statua di Sant’Ambrogio, Università Delgi Studi di Milan, Statue of Sant Ambrogio, University of Milan, Italy – Founded 1924

©Leslee Broersma, Science Laboratori, Università di Torino Science Laboratory, University of Turin, Italy – Founded 1404

©Leslee Broersma, Collezione di Crani “Luigi Calori,” Università di Bologna “Luigi Calori” Skull Collection, University of Bologna, Italy – Founded 1088

©Leslee Broersma, Collezione delle Cere Anatomiche “Luigi Cattaneo,” Università di Bologna “Luigi Cattaneo” Anatomical Wax Collection #1, University of Bologna, Italy – Founded 1088

©Leslee Broersma, Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht, Universiteit Utrecht, Nederland University Museum Utrecht, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands – Founded 1636

©Leslee Broersma, Statue of Sir Isaac Newton, Trinity College Chapel, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, England – Founded 1209

©Leslee Broersma, Trinity College Chapel, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, England – Founded 1209

©Leslee Broersma, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, England – Founded 1096

Epiphany Knedler is an interdisciplinary artist + educator exploring the ways we engage with history. She graduated from the University of South Dakota with a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Political Science and completed her MFA in Studio Art at East Carolina University. She is based in Aberdeen, South Dakota, serving as an Assistant Professor of Art and Coordinator of the Art Department at Northern State University, a Content Editor with LENSCRATCH, and the co-founder and curator of the art collective Midwest Nice Art. Her work has been exhibited in the New York Times, the Guardian, Vermont Center for Photography, Lenscratch, Dek Unu Arts, and awarded through Lensculture, the Lucie Foundation, F-Stop Magazine, and Photolucida Critical Mass.

Follow Epiphany on Instagram: @epiphanysk