Historian of American Art and Visual Culture, Colonial to Contemporary

College of Marin, Kentfield, CA

Areas of Interest:
Intersections of Race and Masculinity in American Art and Visual Culture
Portraiture and the Construction of Identity
Art of California and the American West
Visual Culture of the British Atlantic

In my research, writing, and teaching, I take the position that American art is the product of, and therefore also the representation of, intercultural exchange between different “Americans,” including European Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinx men and women, among others. As a result of these encounters, strikingly hybridized artforms were often produced, which have much to teach us about what we call “the American experience.” Specifically, I seek to understand how the design, construction, and imagery of these objects were – and still are – expressive of deeply held personal and communal values and how, when located within larger patterns of American history, such objects represent the conscious forging and managing of individual and collective identities in the face of social, political, and economic change.

Education:
Ph.D. in History of Art, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 2003
(Specialization in American Art)
M.A. in Art History, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 1991
(Specialization in Early Modern French Painting)
B.A. in Art History/Criticism, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, 1988