For the second of her feature stories, the Department of Art History's Social Media Intern, Laura Lamont, sat down with Anna Yermolina, HASA's 2019-20 President, to discuss her role, what it means to be part of the History of Art Students' Association, and how students can get involved in HASA.
The History of Art Students' Association, or HASA, is the undergraduate art history student body representative focusing on bringing students together. It also acts as a liaison between art history students and faculty to make the community more engaging. The returning president of HASA, Anna, is a fourth year student studying toward a double major in Art History and English along with a minor in environmental studies. I met with her recently to discuss her thoughts on HASA and how you can get involved!
Anna got started in HASA by taking up a call for applications at the end of second year and became treasurer. By fourth year she is both president and treasurer. She is most interested in Ecological Art and Russian Modernism. So far, her favourite courses have been with Professor Legge on Modern Art as well as a Slavic Modernism course with Professor Koznarsky.
As president of HASA, Anna oversees the workings of the association and keeps everything organized. She made it clear that she doesn’t make decisions without consulting the group and likes to focus on collaboration. She views HASA as being a way to bring together undergraduates in a less competitive environment and focus on our community.
The largest annual event is HASA’s Undergraduate Symposium. This is their sixth year, though it has been postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, HASA has partnered with other student groups from the humanities to introduce the Humanities Gala. These two events are fairly formal, but Anna explains that the goal is to create a “friendly and engaging environment” for students and faculty to come together beyond the usual lecture or seminar structure.
Anna’s advice to anyone hoping to get more involved is to sign up! Applications are available annually at the end of the year. More information will be posted to their social media pages. If you don’t want to make a commitment to being on the executive, you can get involved in other ways such as following HASA on Facebook or Instagram and coming out to events!