Smarthistory
Who is Smarthistory?
Smarthistory was founded by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker as a blog in 2005. Since then, many people have contributed their content and skills. Below you can find their biographies. We are actively seeking contributors. If you are interested in contributing, please email us at: Beth.harris[at]gmail[dot]com or drszucker[at]gmail[dot]com.
Executive Editors
Dr. Beth Harris is dean of Art and History at the Khan Academy. Before that, she was Director of Digital Learning at The Museum of Modern Art and assistant professor of art history at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she taught both online and in the classroom. She also directed FIT's large distance learning program. She is a Victorian Studies specialist and edited and contributed to Famine and Fashion: Needlewomen in the Nineteenth Century (2005). She has presented papers on instructional technology at conferences across the country (including the College Art Association, New Media Consortium, Educause, Merlot, etc.). Dr. Harris has authored essays on teaching with image technology including “The Slide Library: A Posthumous Assessment in the Service of Our Digital Future,” Teaching Art History with Technology: Case Studies (2008). Her work has been cited twice in the New Media Consortium's Horizon Report and together with Steven Zucker, she organized two conferences on using technology to teach with images. She received her Master's degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and her Doctorate in Art History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Follow Beth on Twitter.
Dr. Steven Zucker is dean of Art and History at the Khan Academy. He is a specialist in 20th-century art and theory and was chair of History of Art and Design at Pratt Institute. Before that, he was dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY as well as chair of their art history department. He has also taught at The School of Visual Arts, Hunter College, and at The Museum of Modern Art. Dr. Zucker is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. With Dr. Beth Harris, he created the FIT digital image library and organized two national conferences “Small Tools/Big Ideas: a conference on the discipline-specific technologies reshaping the practice of teaching art and art history,” and “Beyond the Slide Library: Digital Media in the Art and Art History Classroom.” Also with Dr. Harris, he wrote “The Image Library as Learning Environment” for CAA News and “The Slide Library: A Posthumous Assessment in the Service of Our Digital Future,” Teaching Art History with Technology: Case Studies (2008). He has published on Abstract Expressionism including his essay “Confrontations with Radical Evil: The Ambiguity of Myth and the Inadequacy of Representation,” in Art History. Dr. Zucker received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Follow Steven on Twitter.
Managing Editor
Dr. Juliana Kreinik has taught the History of Photography at SUNY, New Paltz and Pace University, and lectured on German art of the Weimar era. She received her undergraduate degree in art history from Wellesley College, and her Ph.D. from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, where she wrote her dissertation on New Objectivity in German painting and photography of the 1920s. She is a Research Assistant for the Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné Project, with interests in visual literacy and design, and the intersecting histories of art and popular culture. Follow Juliana on Twitter.
Contributing Editors
Dr. Senta German is the Contributing Editor for Western Ancient Art and the Ancient Near East. She is Associate Professor in the departments of Classics and General Humanities and Art and Design at Montclair State University. She earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1999 in Aegean, Greek and Ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology, writing her dissertation on images of performance in Aegean Bronze Age art, which was published by Archaeopress. Her areas of interest are the Aegean Bronze Age, the early Greek Iron Age, performance, gender and cultural heritage issues. She has over fifteen years experience in excavation and material study in North America, Europe and Asia. She serves on the Board of SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone.
Lotte Meijer is the project manager and information architect for Smarthistory's redesign, as well as a sounding board in between developments. Lotte develops strategies and products to engage visitors with museums, both onsite and online. She combines her interests in art, education and new media in developing museum multimedia products, such as onsite kiosks and audiotours as well as online education strategies. With new media developments as inspiration, she designs innovative ways to engage audiences through experience and education. See her website www.lottemeijer.com and follow Lotte on Twitter.
Dr. Nancy Ross is Contributing Editor for Medieval art. She received her Ph.D in the History of Art from Cambridge University in 2007. She specializes in medieval illuminated manuscripts and teaches art history at Dixie State College of Utah.
Editorial Assistants
Chelsea Kelly will graduate from Vassar College in May 2009 with a B.A. in art history. She has worked in the education departments of a number of museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, and founded the award-winning Art History Blog. She is particularly interested in the use of new technology to create exciting, accessible ways to interact with art, especially in the context of museums and institutions.
Rebecca Mir is currently an M.A. candidate in decorative arts and material culture at the Bard Graduate Center. She graduated in 2010 with a B.A. in art history from the Robert E. Cook Honors College at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She wants to help more museums and professors embrace digital media in their educational efforts.
Contributors
Pippa Couch holds a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, specializing in the art from Antiquity to Byzantium. She has worked in various aspects of arts education since 2000 and is currently working as a gallery educator at the Courtauld Insititute Galleries and the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. Pippa currently works as the Schools Officer at the National Gallery, London.
Dr. Joseph Dauben is Distinguished Professor of History at Herbert H. Lehman College and the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. He has published widely on many subjects including the History of Science, the History of Mathematics, the Scientific Revolution, Sociology of Science, and Intellectual History. He received his Ph.D. at Harvard University.
Dr. David Drogin has been a professor in the History of Art Department at SUNY's Fashion Institute of Technology since 2004 and has previously taught at Wesleyan University, Harvard and Yale. He currently serves as coordinator of the department's Visual Arts Management major. A specialist in Italian Renaissance art, he received his BA from Wesleyan University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has published numerous book reviews for "Renaissance Quarterly" and has contributed chapters on Bolognese art and patronage to several edited volumes. Dr. Drogin has presented papers on a variety of Italian Renaissance subjects at conferences of the Renaissance Society of America, as well as at symposia held at Johns Hopkins University, Cambridge University, and the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum, among others.
Dr. Davor Džalto is currently a professor of history and theory of art at the University of Nish. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg, on the topic “The Role of the Artist in Self-Referent Art.” He wrote his postdoctoral thesis at Münster University,on the topic of human creative capacities. As an honorary or visiting professor he has taught at many universities, in Europe and USA. He has published four books and over 20 articles. The topics discussed in them range from the history of modern and contemporary art and iconography, to theory of authorship, history of the art concept, theory of creativity and political and social implications of art as a modern institution. As an artist, he works in traditional as well as expended media (video art, performance, painting, and sculpture). He has presented his work at more than 15 group and one-man exhibitions.
Dr. Rebecca Jeffrey Easby is an Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Fine Arts Program at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her area of specialization is 19th and 20th century art with a particular interest in Victorian art. She has presented papers at many conferences, both in England and the U.S., and her research can be found in publications such as The Burlington Magazine and History and Community: Essays in Victorian Medievalism (Garland Press). She received her Ph.D. and M.Phil. degrees from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London and her B.A. from The American University in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Allen Farber has taught at the State University of New York College at Oneonta since 1981. He has been responsible for teaching a range of courses including upper level courses in Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance art. He received his PhD from Cornell University in 1980. His thesis focused on the study of the secondary decoration of early fifteenth century Parisian manuscripts. An article entitled "Considering a Marginal Master" published in Gesta (32, 1993, pp. 21-39) presents some of the results of this research. Since 1999, he has devoted his scholarly activity to developing web pages to support his course work. These are accessible through the Art History course page. He has also created a web site dedicated to his study of The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein. He is currently working on a site entitled "Marginal Matters" in which he presents his ongoing research in manuscript studies.
Julia Fischer is a Lecturer of Art History at Georgia Southern University. She has also taught at Columbus College of Art and Design, Denison University, and The Ohio State University. In 2012 she will complete her doctoral studies at The Ohio State University specializing in Greek and Roman art and archaeology. Her research explores the iconography of Roman imperial cameos. A lover of all things Roman, from gelato to the exhaust fumes of mopeds, she can't wait to teach abroad in Italy in 2013.
Meg Floryan is soon to earn her Masters in American Fine & Decorative Art from Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York. While her graduate research focuses on visual and thematic developments in mid twentieth-century children's book illustration, she has also studied ancient art and artifacts at Tulane University in New Orleans. Meg's other interests include contemporary art trends, specifically new developments in the ways in which technology and the Internet aid in spreading information, increasing arts participation, and creating an interactive forum.
Dr. Shana Gallagher-Lindsay has taught the history of Western art at the Fashion Institute of Technology, S.U.N.Y., since 1994. Her areas of specialization are modern and contemporary art, and photography. She completed her Ph.D. at the City University of New York Graduate Center in 2003, writing her dissertation on the installation artist, Marcel Broodthaers. More recently she has publicly lectured and published on the topic of sacrifice as it is treated in contemporary art.
Dr. Parme Giuntini received her Ph.D. from UCLA in 1995 where she focused on 18th century British portraiture and the development of a modern domestic ideal. Since 2003, she has directed the Art History program at Otis College of Art and Design where she has been active in teaching and supervising curricular changes that advance a stronger integration of theory and encourage critical thinking. Her scholarly interests in portraiture and gender have broadened into fashion and identity. She wrote a number of essays and co-edited Garb: A Reader on Fashion and Identity with Kathryn Hagen in 2008.
Monica Hahn has taught art history at the Community College of Philadelphia since 2006. Prior to that, she taught at Philadelphia University. A graduate of Vassar College, she completed her M.A. in art history at Syracuse University, and is pursuing a Ph.D. at Temple University. Monica enjoys incorporating new digital and web tools into her teaching, and has presented her experiences teaching art history in Second Life at conferences. She has a blog at www.ArtHistoryinaHurry.com.
Dr. Amy K. Hamlin is a modernist art historian with expertise in early twentieth-century Germanart, particularly the work of Max Beckmann. In addition to engaging with the interpretive challenges that attend modern German art, she is interested in reception theory, the discourse of art criticism as well as contemporary art. Hamlin earned degrees in art history from Vassar College (B.A. 1995), the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art (M.A. 2000), and the Institute ofFine Arts at NYU (Ph.D. 2007). A brief turn at the Museum of Modern Art in the late nineties affirmed her commitment to teaching from original works of art. She has taught art history and visual culture ata number of institutions including Parsons The New School for Design and Binghamton University. Hamlin is currently an Assistant Professor of Art History at St. Catherine University, whereshe teaches across the art history curriculum.
Dr. Kristen M. Harkness is a modernist specializing in Russian art of
the late-nineteenth century and its relationship to the varied arts and
crafts movements developing across Europe at the time. She has a
particular interest in Russian women artists and their negotiation of
gender boundaries. Dr. Harkness has also translated catalogues for
exhibitions on contemporary women's art from Russia and Eastern Europe
for the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Museum Centre of the Russian
State University of the Humanities. She is currently a Lecturer at
West Virginia University and an Instructor at University of Pittsburgh.
Sophie Harland gained her undergraduate degree in the history of art from the University of Sussex, where she specialised in eighteenth-century prints and paintings as well as Byzantine art. She went on to complete her Masters at the Courtauld Institute of Art, writing her dissertation on the reproduction of ancient sculpture in eighteenth-century Britain. During her studies she wrote for and edited a number of gallery publications as well as delivering public talks in the Courtauld Gallery. Sophie is currently a learning designer for a major UK e-learning company.
Denise Johnson has been teaching art history since 2000. She primarily teaches at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, but has also taught at Mt. San Jacinto College in Menifee, Cal State San Bernardino and Nuview Bridge High School in Nuevo. Denise earned a B.A. in Art and Psychology from UC Riverside and an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. She curated an exhibition of contemporary feminist work for the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007, called Girly Show: Pin-Ups, Zines and the So-Called Third Wave and an exhibition considering family in all of its configurations called Separation Anxiety in 2010 with Rebecca Trawick, Director of the Wignall Museum. She is also the co-host of the art history podcast Iconomaniacs.
Chad Laird has taught in the History of Art Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology since 2005. He received his M.A. in Art History and Criticism form Stony Brook University in 2000, and now concentrates on filmmaking, music and sound art. His works range from sound and video collaborations with transmission artist Tianna Kennedy, soundtracks for experimental films, and his own short film productions with collaborator Jay Hufford.
Julia Langley, after receiving an M.A. in ancient Greek art history from the University of California, Los Angeles, began her career as the assistant director of the Stuart Collection of Sculpture at the University of California, San Diego. There she also taught art history courses, published articles and produced programming for UCSD-TV. In 1999, she authored the Public Art Plan for the City of San Diego. Upon moving to Maryland in 2005 Langley shifted her efforts to elementary education and began a Visual Literacy program to integrate art history with the K-5 curriculum while continuing her studies in public art. In 2010, Langley completed the graduate program in Museum Studies at the George Washington University with a study of the war memorials on the National Mall. In addition to her work in elementary education, Langley teaches at Montgomery College in Rockville.
John Machado is an Associate Professor of Art History teaching courses covering the complete Western survey from the prehistoric to contemporary, as well as the Ancient Americas, Africa and the islands of the South Pacific. He has worked at various museums and galleries and taught art history in California, Oregon and Texas. After completing his degree in art history at San Diego State University he earned his MA in art history at the University of Texas at Austin where he is currently completing his Ph.D. Machado's current research focuses on the iconographic analysis of the pre-Columbian mural tradition along the Gulf of Mexico in the state of Veracruz. He is also the co-host and producer of the art history podcast Iconomaniacs.
Elizabeth Massa-MacLeod earned her BA in Fine Art from Lewis and Clark College and recently completed her MA in History of Art from the University of York in England. She has been involved in film and the arts in Oregon for several years, contributing to films as well as live performances, and is involved in cultural organizations including the Collaborative Arts of Portland, the Oregon Natural History Coalition, and the Portland Art Museum. Elizabeth currently works as a research assistant in Portland, Oregon.
Jp McMahon is a PhD candidate in Art History at University College Cork, Ireland. He currently teaches and is academic coordinator on the diploma in European Art History in the Adult Education department of the same university. He received his BA (with distinction) in Art History and English in 2005. He has published a number of essay on American art since 1945.
Jeremy Miller has taught art history at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco since 2006. He received his MA in Art History from San Francisco State University in 2007, with an emphasis on Venetian Art. His research focuses on the tradition offamily workshops, particularly in Venice, and how production methodsrelate to artistic identity. Jeremy also earned a BFA in photographyfrom the San Francisco Art Institute, and is exploring the foundationsof fashion photography and its relationship to identity. He has beenactive in curriculum development and bringing learner-centeredactivities to students both in and outside the classroom.
Isaac Peterson is an artist, a writer, and a teacher. Born in Alaska, he now lives in New York City. His writing is published primarily in Flash Art magazine. He teaches full time in the graphic design department of Kingsborough Community College. In his studio work, he focuses on drawing and animation, but constantly returns to oil painting. He loves taking classes at the Art Student's League and loves riding his freewheel fixie through Prospect Park.
Dr. Matthew Postal is a historian of 20th-century architecture and urbanism. A graduate of Vassar College and New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, he earned his PhD at the Graduate Center of City University in 1998, where his dissertation examined the relationship between Modernism, museums, and the media. He has taught at various colleges and is currently a professor at the New York School of Interior Design and a researcher at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission where he edited and co-authored the Guide to New York City Landmarks (2009). Matt leads walking tours throughout the city for such cultural organizations as the Municipal Art Society, the Center for the Urban Environment, and the Friends of the High Line. In 2009, he co-authored Ten Architectural Walking Tours in Manhattan.
Rachel S. Ropeik is a 19th century specialist particularly interested in the intersection of art and costume histories. She received her BA in Art History and French from Wellesley College and her MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where she examined 19th century masculinity and 20th century gender theory. She has worked in various aspects of the art world including museums, galleries, and independent appraisals, though she is most passionate about art education. Her museum education work has contributed to a number of British institutions, including The Courtauld Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and Charleston, and she is now an educator and Focus Unit Coordinator at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Follow Rachel on Twitter.
Josh Rose earned an MA in Art History from the University of North Texas in 2003 . In the years since, he has worked in museum art education, designing adult programming at the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Dallas Museum of Art. His areas of research interest include Surrealism and Surrealist photography, particularly the overlap between documentary photographic practices and surrealist ideology. Other areas of interest include the history and practice of cartooning, comics, and animation. Josh currently serves as an Adjunct Instructor of Art History at several north Texas colleges and universities.
Brian Seymour is an art historian of the people. He is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the Community College of Philadelphia. He also teaches Humanities and coordinates the Honors Curriculum. Brian has worked in all areas of the art world from the auction house to the museum to the classroom. He runs an art consulting business, working with viewers at all levels to help them to make sense of looking. He has his M.A. from Temple University and is currently studying Mandarin and writing about the Chinese Contemporary Art Market.
Valerie Spanswick earned her BA in art history from the University of Washington in Seattle, which included studying both Classic and Baroque art and architecture in Rome. She lived in Great Britain for 10 years, and while there earned her MA in the history of art from the University of York with a focus on 18th and 19th century British art and architecture. She has worked in publishing and video production and has written for Fine Art Connoisseur on the topic of the Victorian painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. She is currently a technical editor/administrator and lives in Eugene, Oregon.
Richard Spanswick has an MA in Visual Arts in Contemporary Culture from Keele University, Great Britain. For more than 25 years he has been a producer, director, writer, and cameraman with a focus on training/corporate video. In addition he has produced documentaries about the Brontë sisters, and Buddhism. He lives in Eugene, Oregon.
Dr. Virginia B. Spivey is an art writer specializing in late 20th and 21st century art history and theory. She holds degrees in art history from Duke University (B.A.) and Case Western Reserve University (M.A., Ph.D.). After working as a museum educator in Northeastern Ohio, she served as Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where she received the 2004-2005 Distinguished Teaching Award for Non-tenured faculty. Now based in Washington D.C., she develops art history educational materials in addition to her scholarly work, which is currently focused on the relationship of performance to contemporary craft production.
Dr. Robert Summers received his Ph.D. in Art History at UCLA. Currently he is a lecturer at Otis College of Art, where he received the Excellence in Teaching award (2010-2011), and he is a Research Associate at UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women (2010-2011). He has published papers in anthologies, such as Dead History, Live Art and Art & Shame, and academic journals. He has presented papers and chaired panels at conferences nationally and internationally. Currently, he is working on his manuscript, tentatively titled Queer-Feminist Tactics: Visualities, Relationalities, and Embodiments, which will be published by Duke University Press in 2011.
Dr. Francesca Tronchin earned her Ph.D. in art history from Boston University in 2006, with specializations in Greek and Roman art and archaeology. She is currently the postdoctoral fellow at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, where she is working on a book project about Roman domestic architecture and decor. Among Francesca’s other interests are classical sculpture (especially funerary art), Roman “museums,” and the reception of classical antiquity in the 18thth centuries. Francesca has excavated in Israel, Greece, and Pompeii; she will return to Italy in June 2009 to document the excavations of the Himera Necropolis in Sicily.
Victoria Valdes is currently undertaking Masters research in Medieval Studies in the Art and Art History at the University of Virginia. She works primarily with early medieval manuscripts, specializing in the Ottonian period. She has previously studied at the University of MaryWashington and worked on Northern Renaissance paintings at the ChryslerMuseum in Norfolk. She takes great pleasure in her teaching assistanceships and enjoys both deceiphering medieval art and passingon what she's learned to the students at UVA. Her current projectinvolves an examination of female makers in the Ottonian period and their objects.
Rachel Warriner is currently a PhD candidate in the Art History Department at University College Cork, Ireland. Her research focuses on post-war feminist practice. She currently teaches on the diploma course in European Art History in the Adult Education department of the same university. She received a BA (Hons) in Theatre from Dartington College of Art, Devon, UK in 2002 and has since been co-editor of DEFAULT magazine, and has published a number of papers and reviews on post war art and performance.
Design and Development
Project management and Information ArchitectureLotte Meijer
Design
Mickey Mayo at Mayo Studios
Front-End Development
Matt Haenlin
Back-End Development
Dragan Nikolic
A special thank you to Dr. Joseph Ugoretz, Director of Technology and Learning at Macaulay Honors College, City University of New York. He has been responsible not only for the structure and technology behind the very successful first iterations of the smARThistory web-book, but he has kept a round-the-clock vigil since 2005 ensuring Smarthistory's avilability for our viewers.
.jpg "Arch of Titus")
.jpg "Neo-Assyrian Art: Human Headed Winged Lion and Bull (Lamassu)")
.jpg "Sutton Hoo Ship Burial")
.jpg "Crivelli")
.jpg "van der Weyden, Deposition, c. 1435 (Prado, Madrid)")
.jpg "Saint Peter's Basilica")
.jpg "Robert Mills and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey, Washington Monument, completed 1884")
.jpg "Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950-51")
.jpg "Klee's Twittering Machine")
