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Dr. Elissa AutherDr. Elissa Auther
Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art and Theory
Program Director, Art History
Department of Visual and Performing Arts

Degrees:
Ph.D. University of Maryland, College Park, 2000

Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, 1996

B.A. History of Art, San Francisco State University, 1991

Selected Fellowships and Awards:
2004-2005 J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the History of Art
2002 Smithsonian Institution Research Fellowship, The Renwick Gallery,
     Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
1998-1999 Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship, Smithsonian American
     Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
1998 Luce Foundation Dissertation Research Grant
1994 Maverick Scholar Grant, Attingham Program in the Decorative Arts, London
1991 Phi Beta Kappa
1990 Younger Scholars’ Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities


Brief Biography:
My areas of expertise in the history of art include modern and contemporary art, feminist art and theory, and film and the avant-garde. My book manuscript, String, Felt, Thread and the Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art, 1960-1980, focuses on the broad utilization of fiber in art from the late 1960s to the present, and the changing hierarchical relationship between art and craft expressed by the medium’s evolving visibility. This study was supported by a J. Paul Getty Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Art and Humanities in 2004-5. I have also written about and published on the criticism of Clement Greenberg and the history of the decorative, the use of yarn and other types of fiber in feminist anti-war activism, artist-produced wallpapers, and the contemporary film installations of Isaac Julien. I am the co-editor of the April 2007 special issue on contemporary feminist activist art for the National Women’s Studies Association Journal.  Currently, I am at work on a new book and exhibition project.  Tentatively titled, Cities of Love, this project investigates the diverse visual and material culture of American communes and utopian settlements in the 1960s and 1970s.  In addition, I am the founder and co-director Feminism & Co: Art, Sex, Politics, ..., a think tank devoted to producing innovative public programming about feminist art and culture housed within the contemporary art institute, The Lab at Belmar (www.belmarlab.org).

Presently, I teach the following courses in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts:

Lower Division:
Art Matters: Reading, Writing and Research in Art History
Survey of Modern Art I

Upper Division:
Women, Art and Culture II
Art After 1945
Contemporary Art
Theory in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture
Women in Independent Film, Video and Digital Media
Film and the Avant-Garde
Senior Seminar in the Practice of Art History
Material Matters: The History of Fiber and Art

Courses I will be offering in the future:
Special Topics in Art History: Fakes and Recreations in Contemporary Art
Survey of Contemporary American Visual Culture
Art and Sound After 1960

Helpful Links for Studens in My Courses:

General/Career Advice

Christina Maranci, A Survival Guide for Art History Students (Prentice Hall, 2005).
Robert Peters, Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or Ph.D. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992).
"Career Alternatives for Art Historians" (http://www.nd.edu/~crosenbe/jobs.html).
Art French Magazine (www.ArtFrenchMagazine.com).
"Art History in Just a Minute" podcasts available through iTunes or (http://ewart.sbc.edu).

Art History Club
Join the Art History Club by registering on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10049053475).

Lower Division

Upper Division