R1 Research Profile
The Department of Art History is proud to contribute actively to UWM’s role as one of only two R1 universities in Wisconsin, with the unique, but fundamental, goal of serving as an institution of access. Art History faculty maintain a robust research and publishing agenda that spans global visual and material culture from prehistory to the present, in addition to representing the department through professional and academic service at the regional, national, and international level. Faculty and staff regularly curate exhibitions, present papers at professional conferences, direct archaeological fieldwork, and serve on the boards of professional organizations. The Department of Art History stewards one of the premier university art collections in the Midwest. The UWM Art Collection [https://uwm.edu/arthistory/gallery/art-collection/] encompasses approximately 8,000 objects representing global visual and material culture from ancient to contemporary. Areas of special strength include prints from the 15th to 20th century, Greek and Russian Icons, American folk art, and ethnographic collections of Africa and Oceania from nearly one hundred different cultural areas and twenty-three different countries. This donor-based collection includes works by Rembrandt, Dürer, Hogarth, Kollwitz, Whistler, Renoir, Calder, Chagall, Picasso, O’Keefe, Warhol, Rauschenberg, and many others. The UWMAC also holds large single-artist collections for Max Arthur Cohn and Robert von Neumann, which offer students distinct research and exhibition opportunities. The collection, in conjunction with the state-of-the-art Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery, provides experiential learning opportunities for UWM students across the curriculum and serves as a research engine for graduate theses and exhibitions, as well as for ongoing collaborative study by faculty and students. More importantly, the collection and exhibition spaces allow the department to align its own mission with that of the university by enhancing undergraduate and graduate education through innovative teaching and experiential learning, promoting research through exhibitions and critical inquiry, and engaging community partners through programming and outreach.
- Received over $1.57 million in research funding through UWM internal, federal, international, and private grant and fellowship programs including: the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, Kress Foundation, Terra Foundation, Renaissance Society of America, Australia Council for the Arts, The Getty Research Institute, Rockefeller Archive Center, Bard Graduate Center, Brown University, and the UW-Madison Institute for Research in the Humanities (2005-present)
- Published 165 monographs, edited volumes, peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, and invited essays (2010-present)
- Delivered over 260 public lectures, including keynote addresses, conference presentations, panels organized/chaired, and invited talks (2010-present)
- Provided over 65 peer-reviews for journals, publishers, and federal/international granting agencies (2010-present)
- Published two subject essays, and received commission for a third, in the peer-reviewed Oxford Bibliographies Online
- Curated 10 large-scale regional, national, and international art exhibitions at major art institutions/galleries (2010-present)
- Served as external Ph.D. readers (e.g., Univ. of Chicago, Univ. of Cincinnati, Tulane Univ., Trinity College Dublin), as well as thesis committees in Anthropology, English, Film Studies, and SARUP at UWM
- Served on editorial boards of national and international academic journals
- Served as board members for learned institutions including the Association of Historians of American Art, Archaeological Institute of America, Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee Art Museum, International Center of Medieval Art, and Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Center for Renaissance Studies Consortium (Newberry), Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
- Formed internship partnerships with local public and private museums, galleries, and art institutions, including the Haggerty Museum of Art, Museum of Wisconsin Art, Kohler Foundation, Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee Public Museum, and Milwaukee Art Museum