Paula J Birnbaum
Associate Professor
Paula Birnbaum is Associate Professor and Program Director of
Art History/Arts Management in the Department of Art +
Architecture. She will serve as Academic Director of the new Master
of Arts Program in Museum Studies at USF beginning in August of
2013. Paula is a specialist in modern and contemporary art and
holds a doctorate in Art History from Bryn Mawr College. She is a
former Fulbright Scholar and fellow at the Institute for Research
on Women and Gender at Stanford University. In 2008 Paula received
the University of San Francisco, Faculty Union (USFFA)
Distinguished Teaching Award (university wide award) and enjoys
teaching a variety of classes including Museum Studies - History
and Theory, Modern and Contemporary Art, European Art 1900-1945 and
Women and Art, as well as curating exhibitions in USF's
Thacher Gallery. She also runs the Arts Management Internship
Program, and has enjoyed working closely since 2003 with educators
from Bay Area Museums including the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco, SFMOMA, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, among many
others.
Dr. Birnbaum's research focuses on the impact of gender
and ethnicity on modern and contemporary women artists and their
self-representation, as well as the role of gender and sexuality in
museum exhibitions. She has recently completed two books: Women
Artists in Interwar France: Framing Femininities (Ashgate),
and a co-edited anthology with Anna Novakov, Essays on
Women's Artistic and Cultural Contributions 1919-1939
(Edwin Mellen). Paula's articles appear in a variety of
journals including the Art Journal, Aurora,
Woman's Art Journal, and The Royal Academy of
Art Magazine. Other recent essays appear in the anthologies
Diaspora and Modern Visual Culture (Routledge), The
Modern Woman Revisited (Rutgers), Reconciling Art and
Motherhood (Ashgate).
Current research projects include a series of articles on
contemporary feminist art in Israel, and an essay on street art on
the separation barrier between Israel and Palestine. Dr. Birnbaum
is also completing a monograph on Chana Orloff (1888-1968), a
prolific sculptor who made her career in France and Israel.
Administrative Appointments
Chair, Art History & Arts Management
Academic Director, Master of Arts, Museum Studies
