Art History Faculty

Associate Professor & Undergraduate Advisor, Art History
Alexander Dumbadze is Associate Professor of Art History. His essays and criticism have been published in a variety of national and international publications. He is also a co-founder and former president of the Society of Contemporary Art Historians. He teaches courses on contemporary art, theory, and historiography. Read More

Adjunct Professor of Art History, Art History Program
Dr. Gillian B. Elliott is a historian of Medieval art focusing on the political context of Romanesque sculpture in the Holy Roman Empire, specifically in northern Italy and in Alsace, France. Read More
Associate Professor of Classics and Art History, Art History Program
Elise A. Friedland holds a BA in Classics from Williams College and an MA and PhD in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan.

Professor, Art History Director of Visiting Artists & Scholars Committee
Philip Jacks is a Professor in the Art History Program within the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. Most recently, Professor Jacks designed and oversaw construction of the new Seminar Room and Graduate Lounge on the first floor of Smith Hall of Art.Read More

Adjunct Professor of Art History
Jung-Sil Lee has been a historian of modern and contemporary art in global perspectives and an independent curator. Her research interests cover public memorials, ritual theory, feminism, and grassroots activism through art.

Assistant Professor of Art History, Art History Program
Lisa Lipinski's teaching and research interests include modern and contemporary art and theoretical approaches to the visual arts, Surrealism and the art of René Magritte, the body in modern and contemporary art, and Abraham Lincoln’s influence on America art and culture.

Adjunct Professor in Art History
Katherine Markoski is an art historian with a specialty in modern and contemporary art. As the 2009-10 recipient of the Dedalus Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and a 2014-15 Smithsonian American Art Museum Postdoctoral Fellowship, Markoski examined the significance of notions of community to artistic practice at Black Mountain College.Read More

Adjunct Professor of Art History, Art History Program
Dr. Matheny currently serves as Deputy Head of Interpretation at the National Gallery of Art, leading a team of educators to shape interpretation of both the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions.Read More

Associate Professor of Art History; Director of Graduate Studies
Mika Natif is an Islamic Art Historian who focuses on trans-cultural artistic connections between Muslim societies and Europe, diversity and religious tolerance in Islamic art, and the role of women as patrons, artists, and subject matter in the pre-modern Persianate spheres.Read More

Associate Professor of Art History; Transfer and Study Abroad Art History Program
Professor Obler's research and teaching interests include modern and contemporary art and craft from the late nineteenth century to the present, with emphases on twentieth-century avant-gardes, theories of gender and cross-cultural representation, photography, applied arts, and intellectual history.Read More

Visual Resources Coordinator
Paul Reuther is the Visual Resources Coordinator. Paul is a painter, a teacher, and an image collections curator. Paul currently teaches Technical Art History (AH3170) and heads the Visual Resources Center in the Art History Program. Read More

Professor, Art History
A specialist in nineteenth-century European art, Professor Robinson’s primary research focus since 2003 has been on Serbian painting. Her most recent research includes a comparative study of Serbian and French history painting in “History Painting: Its Transformative Implications,” (in press) and a long term book project on nineteenth-century Serbian painting.Read More

Adjunct Professor of Art History
Sandra Tropper has been a fine art appraiser and consultant in the Washington D.C. area for more than 25 years. She holds the designation of Fellow in the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and has a specialty in Fine Arts.

Program Head of Art History, Professor of Art History, Art History Program
Professor von Barghahn is Professor and Program Head of Art History. She teaches Northern Renaissance and Baroque art, Spanish and Portuguese art, colonial art of Latin America and Brazil. In 2011, Professor von Barghahn was the curatorial advisor to the National Gallery of Art exhibition, The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries, which traveled to museums in Dallas and San Diego. Read More