Every year, creative grad students from across the disciplines submit compelling images of their research and scholarship to the Image of Research competition. To accompany each image submission, the creator writes a short paragraph explaining how the image relates to their wider academic work, giving us a glimpse behind the scenes.
We caught up with some of the award winners from the 2025 Image of Research competition to ask them more about their process. Enjoy this interview with Ilaria Strocchia, a graduate student in Spanish and Portuguese and 1st place winner in this year’s contest, and then view the video to hear Strocchia read her award-winning submission, "Where Water Has Memory."
Why did you enter Image of Research this year?
I decided to enter the Image of Research competition because I have always believed in the power of combining images and words to communicate ideas in meaningful and accessible ways. During my research trip to Mexico City, I found myself taking photographs almost instinctively, drawn to scenes that carried a deep emotional and symbolic weight. These images seemed to capture something essential about the places and histories I was exploring. Entering the competition felt like a way to give those images life; to share my research through a more intuitive, visual lens that enriches the academic narrative.
What was the process of coming up with your image?
The process began by identifying a key concept that captures the emotional and intellectual core of my project. I then considered how to represent that idea through composition, symbolism, and setting. I chose an image that not only illustrates the environmental and cultural dimensions of my research but also evokes the layered histories and tensions that I study.
What did you learn or take away from this experience?
This experience reminded me of the power of imagery to distill complex ideas and invite new conversations. It pushed me to think more creatively about how I communicate my scholarship and inspired me to integrate more interdisciplinary approaches into my research process. It also made me more aware of how visual storytelling can open doors to broader conversations and connect with people who might not typically engage with a specific academic work.
Read Ilaria's Entry
Water. Drops that remember, that long for the past. Scattered drops flow and settle fluidly on the windows of the Torre Latinoamericana in Mexico City. From the city’s depths, the modern and imposing building emerges, opening up a view toward a vast and complex megalopolis, where spaces and times crowd together, shrink, and overlap, evoking images of the ancient five lakes that once covered the Mexico Valley. I took this photo in July 2024, during a research trip for my doctoral thesis, which examines the city’s deep relationship with its lacustrine past in Hispanic contemporary literature. Where Mexico City stands today, the Spanish crown began the imperial project of New Spain in the 16th century. As part of it, a centuries-long process of territorial transformation took shape through the systematic draining of the Valley. Though only traces remain of these ancient lakes, torrential rains, devastating floods, and fluid ground continue to swallow up the city while reviving its memory. Water thus remains the region’s vital force, repeatedly returning to reclaim its ancestral space. This ongoing cycle challenges any definitive solution to the centuries-old negotiation between anthropocentrism and nature in the Mexico Valley, as the landscape continues to resist human determinism.
Visit the Image of Research website for more information about this celebration of graduate student research.
This interview was conducted by Brandon Stauffer, Videographer here at the Graduate College. Brandon came to the Graduate College with a background in journalism and is now working to showcase the impact of Higher Education at Illinois.
