My research focuses on the intersection of gender, representation, and power in early modern France. I have published on the representation of Anne of Austria (1601-1666), Marie Leszczinska (1703-1768), and Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), and I am working on a manuscript on the representation of queenship in eighteenth-century France. I am also interested in Salon criticism, fashion, and portraiture in addition to the work of women art laborers – women not traditionally considered ‘artists’ – in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France and England, including art restorers, wax sculptors, and studio assistants.

My courses take a visual culture approach to images and representations from both the past and the present. In Introduction to Visual Culture, we examine visual expression to understand and engage the culture in which these representations are produced and encountered. Students in the course develop critical thinking, writing, and viewing skills while discussing and examining images -- everything from fine art to advertising to television, film, and new media. Imaging Authority examines the way that rulers and political leaders are portrayed in light of concepts of gender, power, and authority. We begin with the Tudors (including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I), who ruled England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, then look at the imagery of the Bourbon monarchs in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France. The course concludes with contemporary political representation in the United States, in particular the 2008 presidential election. This fall, I will teach a seminar on material culture called Things, Stuff, and Objects. In this course, we will study material objects – including furniture, textiles, and porcelain – often at the center of lived experience, but on the periphery of academic study. This course will consider the function and setting of these objects, but also their circulation and meaning in a global context. 

Course Offerings:
AH 135: Introduction to Visual Culture
AH 202: Body Language
AH 275: Imaging Authority, Representing Rule
AH 490: Things, Stuff, and Objects: Material Culture and Art History