Full-Time Faculty
Assistant Professor of Art History, Art History Program
Clement Akpang, Corcoran's Art History Program, holds a PhD in art and art theory/history from the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, U.K. Prior to coming to GW, he was a Junior Core Research Fellow for the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Central European University in Hungary.
Assistant Professor & Director of Graduate Studies (MA + MFA), Interior Architecture
Catherine Anderson has worked at several architecture & interior design firms during her career and now dedicates her time to educating students on understanding architectural concepts. In 2013, Professor Anderson participated with some of the Interior Architecture Program's students in the United States Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon.
Program Head, Graduate Advisor & Associate Professor, Museum Studies
Suse Anderson joined the faculty of The George Washington University in 2016 and currently serves as program head in the Museum Studies Program.
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Associate Professor of Music (Performance), Director of Performance Studies
Robert Baker has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Music for 25 years. A singer who performs with the Metropolitan Opera, the Washington National Opera, the National Symphony and with choral organizations across the country, he focuses on new music and new ways of thinking about and presenting the traditional repertoire. He teaches voice lessons and in the classroom. Read More
Voice & Speech, Classical Acting Program
Lisa Ann Beley is head of Voice and Text at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She obtained a BFA from the University of British Columbia and as an actor worked in theatre, film and television as well as established herself as one of Vancouver’s top voice-over talents. Read More
Professor of Music (Composition)
Douglas Boyce writes chamber music that draws on Renaissance traditions and modernist aesthetics, building rich rhythmic structures that shift between order, fragmentation, elegance, and ferocity. Read More
Program Head & Associate Professor, Fine Arts, Studio Arts program; Undergraduate Advisor BA & BFA, Fine Arts
Michele Carlson is a multidisciplinary practitioner working across the fields of art, writing, publishing, and collective practice. Carlson is one of three founding members of the arts collective Related Tactics, which facilitates projects at the intersection of race, art, and culture.
Associate Professor and Head of Museum Studies Online Certificate
Professor Coughlin has an interest in the conservation challenges of contemporary museum collections, particularly with respect to plastic. Before coming to GW full time, she worked for five years in the Objects Conservation Laboratory of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History where she conserved objects as diverse as FDR’s leg braces and Star War’s C-3PO and R2-D2. Read More
Program Head, Interior Architecture; Assistant Professor and Graduate Advisor (MA)
Douglas Crawford, AIA is an award-winning architect whose academic and professional work is focused on the intersection of design and digital methodologies.Read More
Program Head, Design; Assistant Professor & Director of Graduate Studies, Exhibition Design
Andrea Dietz is an architect, curator, and writer. Her creative and scholarly practice is focused on “architecture(s) of and on display” – or the translation and exhibition of the built environment. Andrea has worked in architecture research and exhibition design with Bestor Architecture, Chu + Gooding Architects, and independently. Read More
Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance, Theatre & Dance Program
Brendan Drake is an interdisciplinary artist and educator currently based in Brooklyn and Washington DC Read More
Program Head, Theatre & Dance; Associate Professor of English
Holly Dugan’s scholarship focuses on the role of literature as an archive of the past, especially in terms of histories of embodiment, theater, and early modern English material culture. She is working on two book projects: Shakespeare and the Senses, which explores the sensory aspects of early modern performance, and “The Famous Ape,” which traces the role of animal actors from the Renaissance to the modern era. Read More
Associate Professor & Director of Undergraduate Studies, 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
Associate Professor of Costume Design & Technology, Theatre & Dance Program
Sigridur is a costume designer who specializes and focuses her teaching on reproducing historical costumes based on research as well as dance costumes. She is the resident costume designer for Washington Stage Guild (DC), Ambassador Theatre (DC), and MetroStage in Alexandria VA.Read More
Assistant Professor of Interior Architecture, Interior Architecture Program
Scott Jones is an Assistant Professor of Interior Architecture, and an active professional industrial designer with a focus on furniture, lighting, product and interior design. Scott combines playful curiosity with a research-driven, human-centered approach to inform his designs.Read More
Program Head & Associate Professor of Music (History & Culture)
Loren Kajikawa is an associate professor of music. His main area of research and teaching is American music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with special attention to the dynamics of race and politics. Read More
Professor, Theatre; Advisor, Classical Acting
As a scholar, she has been trained to apply the theoretical lens of performance to everyday practices and so, while her methodology is consistent, the subjects of her work vary wildly—from, for example, end of life health care to contemporary dramatic literature to the American Presidency. Read More
Studio Arts Professor, Photography
Professor Kessmann's photographs–alternately made with scanners, cameras, camera-less darkroom processes, and most recently, screenshots from computer monitors–comment on image-making technologies, landscape photography, and contemporary consumer culture.Read More
Assistant Professor of Dance, Director of Undergraduate Studies; Undergraduate Faculty Advisor; Affiliate Faculty of the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service
Anna Kimmel's work lies at the intersection of dance and legal studies, studying the relation between francophone histories and moments of public assembly. Read More
Assistant Professor and Faculty Advisor, Graphic Design
Aasawari Kulkarni is a designer, educator, and writer, originally from India. By employing tools of language, poetry, and empathy, her work explores the intersection of human behaviour and culture with design.Read More
Associate Professor of Art History; Director of Graduate Studies, Art History Program
Lisa Lipinski is art historian and specialist in the fields of modern and contemporary art. She teaches courses in the history and theory of photography, 19th and 20th-century art in Latin America, the United States, and Europe, and Art Historiography. Read More
Associate Professor, Art and Design, Studio Arts Program
Ms. McAleer-Keeler currently serves on the Steering Committee of the College Book Art Association, working to advance and promote academic book arts education by encouraging its development and practice. Her studio is part of the Liberty Town Arts Workshop in Fredericksburg, VA.Read More
Visiting Assistant Professor, Interior Architecture; Faculty Advisor, Exhibition Design
Melina graduated from the Masters of Architecture program at the University of Oregon in Portland and from the Bachelor of Science in Architecture program at the University of Maryland in College Park. Read More
Associate Professor of Music (Musicianship & Theory); Undergraduate Advisor
Eugene Montague joined the faculty at the George Washington University in the fall of 2009, having previously taught for several years at the University of Central Florida. Professor Montague's research focuses on many of the ways in which music interacts with movement, including music and dance, theories of performance, and links between musical experience and human consciousness.Read More
Associate Professor Sculpture and Spatial Practices, Studio Arts Program; Graduate Advisor, M.F.A. in Fine Arts and Social Practice
Maria del Carmen Montoya is a multidisciplinary artist and collaborative creative professional who explores the intersection of art, community, and human connection.Read More
Associate Professor of Art History
A specialist in Islamic art, Mika Natif focuses on the intercultural exchanges and global connections that Muslim societies forged with the European sphere during the premodern period. Read More
Program Head and Associate Professor of Art History
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
Director, Corcoran School of the Arts & Design; Professor of Music
Lauren Onkey is the director of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and Professor of Music at the George Washington University. Dr. Onkey, a longtime educator, scholar, producer and museum professional, joined GW in July of 2021. Read More
Assistant Professor; Faculty Advisor (undergraduate and graduate), Interaction Design
Kevin Patton is a designer, musician, and creative technologist whose projects often include novel approaches to physical and computational interaction in expressive contexts. His research interests include expressive technological systems, automation and agency, visualization, musical thinking, and human centered design.Read More
Associate Professor, New Media Studio Arts Program
Siobhan Rigg is Associate Professor of Studio Arts and currently also serves as Program Head of Design. Rigg is a multidisciplinary artist, teacher, and writer whose creative and research interests center on social and environmental micro-histories.
Deputy Director, Corcoran; Associate Professor & Graduate Advisor, Museum Studies; Faculty Advisor Museum Studies Program
Before joining the Museum Studies faculty in 2009, Professor Schiavo worked in museums in the DC area, including the City Museum, Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, and the National Building Museum, where she curated Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s.Read More
Associate Professor, Fine Arts
James Sham is an inter-disciplinary artist whose research includes themes of translation, performance, social practice and innovation. Sham’s work involves multiple areas of focus from goldfish pigment extraction, to Artificial Intelligence, and even using eye-tracking technology to study Interpretation in deaf culture.
Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Design
Nidhi Singh Rathore is a South Asian designer, researcher, and educator who explores the application of design methodologies to civic engagement and social innovation.Read More
Assistant Professor, Interior Architecture Program
Professor Speck's areas of expertise include AutoCAD, Revit, research methods, lighting, preservation, and building technology. She teaches courses on computer technologies, lighting, construction methods and materials, while going beyond the classroom to expose students to many real-world experiences and resources.Read More
Associate Professor of Music (Electronic & Computer)
Heather Stebbins is a composer, technologist, synthesist, and educator based in Washington, DC, where she is Assistant Professor of Electronic and Computer Music at George Washington University.Read More
Associate Professor, Art and Design Director of Graduate Studies, New Media Photojournalism
Susan Sterner started her career as a photojournalist freelancing with national and international publications while based in New Orleans, La. She worked for the Associated Press as a staff photographer, based in Mississippi and California. With the AP she covered domestic issues such as immigration, child labor and families in poverty as well as U.S. border issues and social change in Haiti. Read More
Associate Professor, Production Management & Technology
John is an Associate Professor of Production Design at the George Washington University, where he teaches courses in Design and Management and serves as the Technical Director for the Corcoran Theatre & Dance Program.
Associate Professor, Interior Architecture Program
Stephanie Travis is the Program Head of Interior Architecture. She received her Master of Architecture with distinction and Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Read More
Assistant Professor & Graduate Advisor, Museum Studies
Max A. van Balgooy is a national leader in historical interpretation and community engagement, with extensive experience in developing solutions in collaboration with diverse audiences, including volunteers, staff, trustees, residents, scholars, design professionals, business leaders, and elected officials.Read More
Associate Professor of Foundations and Sculpture; Director of Undergraduate Studies, Studio Arts
Professor Vieira has exhibited extensively both internationally and in the U.S., including institutional projects at Kunsthalle Basel, CH, Swiss Institute, NY, Fall River MoCA, Storm King Art Center, PinchukArtCentre, Non-Objectif Sud, Frieze Projects, The Public Art Fund, The Highline, and SculptureCenter. Read More
Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Advisor, Interior Architecture
Nadia Volchansky is a creative leader with experience in pedagogy, strategy and activism. She is a published researcher, an established designer, and a strategic problem solver, and is recognized for her resiliency, a high level of commitment and a drive for innovation.Read More
Professor of Art History; Transfer and Study Abroad Advisor, Art History Program
Professor von Barghahn is a Professor 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
Director, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum; Associate Professor, Museum Studies
A museum director for over two decades, John Wetenhall served for nine years as Executive Director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, leading a $150 million capital and endowment transformation.Read More
Assistant Professor, Theatre & Dance
Tanya Wetenhall teaches costume and textiles as material and visual culture. With a focus on object-based teaching and learning, her courses encompass fashion and costume history, fashion in art, world dress practices and the cultural histories of the theatre and ballet design. Read More
Assistant Professor of Theatre, Theatre & Dance Program
Sidney Monroe Williams (they/them) is a community-based theatre artist whose work is situated at the intersections of race, gender and class.Read More
Associate Professor of Music (Performance); Director of Chamber Ensembles
Praised for her "taut and impassioned performance" by the New York Times, pianist Ning Yu performs with vigor and dedication for traditional and avant-garde repertoire of the 20th and 21st century on stages across the United States, Europe and Asia.Read More