Faculty & Staff

MUSEUM STUDIES FACULTY

The Program in Museum Studies combines a rich curriculum, an outstanding faculty, a diverse student body, and ongoing contact with the New York museum world. Full-time faculty are scholars with backgrounds in art history, anthropology, history, technology, museum activism, social justice, intellectual property law, decolonization, and cultural studies. In addition to Museum Studies courses on these topics, students may pursue the study of museums from a variety of disciplinary perspectives in courses across the Graduate School of Arts and Science.

 

ROSANNA N. FLOUTY

Program Director, Program in Museum Studies
ROSANNA N. FLOUTY

Museums, Accessibility, Digital Practice, Social Justice, Community Outreach, Audience and Visitor Engagement, Interactive Technology, Informal Online Learning.

Museum Studies Courses:
Museums and Interactive Technologies (MSMS-GA 2225)
Internship (MSMS-GA 3990)
Independent Study (MSMS-GA 3195)

Full Profile

JANE ANDERSON

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Program in Museum Studies
JANE ANDERSON

Property law; coloniality and colonial governance; Indigenous rights and sovereignty; museum studies; cultural property; heritage studies; applied anthropology; transformative practice and ethical frameworks for social change.  

Museum Studies Courses:
Heritage, Memory and Negotiating Temporalities (MSMS-GA 2229) 

On Leave Until Fall 2025

Full Profile

MIRIAM M. BASILIO

Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Program in Museum Studies
MIRIAM M. BASILIO

Art, propaganda, cultural property and national identity in Spain; modern Spanish and Latin American art; the history of collecting and exhibitions of Latin American art in the United States; art and political activism. 

Museum Studies Courses:
Research Seminar (MSMS-GA 3991)
Topics in Museum Studies: Collecting and Exhibiting Latin American and Latinx Art in the US (MSMS-GA 3330-005)

Full Profile

Camille-Mary Sharp

Faculty Fellow, Program in Museum Studies
Camille-Mary Sharp

Museums and the Climate Crisis; Activism and Protest in/at Museums; Funding and Sponsorship.

Museum Studies Courses:
History and Theory of Museums (MSMS-GA 1500) 
Research Seminar (MSMS-GA 3991)
Topics in Museum Studies: Museum Activism (MSMS-GA 3330-004)

Full Profile

 

MARISA KARYL FRANZ

Clinical Assistant Professor, Program in Museum Studies
MARISA KARYL FRANZ

Materiality; Ethics; Ontologies; Environment and Ecology of Preservation; Colonialism and

Decolonization; Memory Studies; Affect Theory; Destruction and Decay; Collections; Intellectual History;

Museum Theory; Eastern Europe; Ethnographic Collections; History of Anthropology; Haunting; Magic;

Religion; Death.

Museum Studies Courses:
History and Theory of Museums (MSMS-GA 1500)
Research Seminar (MSMS-GA 3991) 
Topics in Museum Studies: Critical Collections: On the Ethics and Identities of Things (MSMS-GA 3330-006)
Topics in Museum Studies: Religion, Magic, Science & the Museum (MSMS-GA 3330-002) 

Topics in Museum Studies: Death, Decay, Destruction in Preservation Sites (MSMS-GA 3330-002)

Full Profile

Lauraberth Lima

Faculty Fellow, Program in Museum Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Lauraberth Lima

Health, Art, and Activism; Community Engagement; Equity work in Museums; LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in Museums.

Museum Studies Courses:
Topics in MS: Ethical Frameworks for Museum Work (MSMS-GA 3330-003) 
Internship (MSMS-GA 3990)
Museums and Community (MSMS-GA 2228-001)

Full Profile

ADJUNCT FACULTY

Adjunct faculty are practicing museum professionals who are well known in the field, and also work as independent consultants and published writers. Their curricula provide students with active and engaged understandings of museum work through their own career experiences working in museums, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and more. Our adjunct faculty teach about museum management and the creation and management of collections and exhibitions, as well as teach seminars on museum conservation, exhibition history, museums and the law, fundraising, and a variety of topics relevant for contemporary museum practice.

Ramona Bronkar Bannayan

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Ramona Bronkar Bannayan

Former Senior Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the Museum of Modern Art.

Areas of research and interest include Modern and Contemporary Art (including performance, installation and digital art); Exhibitions; Collections; Circulating Exhibitions; Museum Futures; Fine Arts; Museum Management & Administration

 

Museum Studies Courses:
Conservation and Collections Management (MSMS-GA 2222.001)

Jeffrey D. Feldman

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Jeffrey D. Feldman

Former Faculty Fellow in Museum Studies at NYU.
Author of  Framing the Debate (2007) and Outright Barbarous (2008).

Areas of research interest include Political Rhetoric; Jewish Museums; Social Anthropology; Museum Theory and Politics; Museum Objects; Political Conflict, American Politics. 

 

Museum Studies Courses:
Museums and Political Conflict (MSMS-GA 2226.001)

Helen R. Warwick

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Helen R. Warwick

Principal, Helen Warwick Management, LLC, New York and formerly Executive Director of Individual Development at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

 

Museum Studies Courses:
Museum Management (MSMS-GA 1502)
Development, Fund-raising, and Grantsmanship: Funding the 21st Century Museum (MSMS-GA 2221)

Hima Gleason

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Former Faculty Fellow in Museum Studies at NYU.
Director of Legal Education at the Justice learning Center.

Areas of research interest include:
Museums and Law, For-Profit and Nonprofit Museums; Collecting; Antiquities; American Collecting; American Law.

 

Museum Studies Courses:
Museums and the Law (MSMS-GA 2220.001)

Sharon Vatsky

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Former Director of School, Teacher and Family Programs at the Guggenheim Museum. Author of Museum Gallery Activities: A Handbook (2018) and Interactive Museum Tours: A Guide to In-Person and Virtual Experiences (2023) both published by Rowman and Littlefield.

Areas of interest and research include: Museum Programming; Education; Curriculum Development; Audience Engagement; Museum Experience; Access Programs; Modern and Contemporary Art.

 

Museum Studies Courses:
Museum Education (MSMS-GA 2224) 

Ilk Yasha

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Ilk Yasha

Ilk Yasha is an educator, arts administrator, and multidisciplinary facilitator at The Studio Museum in Harlem. He has worked with many arts and cultural organizations including The Museum of Modern Art, Pioneer Works, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Museum of the City of New York, and Brooklyn Historical Society.
Areas of interest and research include: community engagement, education, public programs,  museum activism.

 

Museum Studies Courses:
Museums and Community (MSMS-GA 2228-001)

Ruth Starr

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Ruth Starr

Former Accessibility Manager at Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and current Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusion Consultant for NASA.

Areas of interest and research include: accessibility; arts education; technology; inclusion; workplace culture and well-being; ASL and communication in museums; accessible curation and design.

 

Museum Studies Courses:
Museum Career Lab (MSMS-GA 3990-002)

Ian Kerrigan

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Ian Kerrigan

Senior Vice President of Exhibitions at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and Managing Editor of Exhibition journal published by the National Association for Museum Exhibition and the American Alliance of Museums.

Areas of interest and research include: exhibition design and development, project management, public history, and interpreting traumatic content.

 

Museum Studies Courses:

Exhibition Planning & Design (MSMS-GA 3332-001)

Queena Ko

Adjunct Assistant Professor
profile photo of Queena Ko

Director of Education at The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum
Areas of interest include: Art & Visual Culture; Museum Education; Co-created Programming; Curriculum Writing; Counternarratives; Anti-Racist / Anti-Bias Frameworks; Culturally Responsive Teaching; BIPOC-led Arts; Labor Equity; Sustainable Structures for Networks of Learning Within Museums

 

Museum Studies Courses:

Museum Education (MSMS-GA 2224-001) 

Matthew Israel

Adjunct Assistant Professor
profile photo of Matthew Israel

Formerly Commissions Lead at Open Arts at Meta; Head Curator and Director of The Art Genome Project at Artsy. Ph.D., Art History & Archaeology, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

Author of A Year in the Art World: An Insider's View; The Big Picture: Contemporary Art in 10 Works by 10 Artists; and Kill for Peace: American Artists Against the Vietnam War.

Areas of interest and research: modern and contemporary art history, art and technology, curation, art writing, art and politics, and digital strategy.

 

Museum Studies Courses:
Museums and Contemporary Art (MSMS-GA 3335)

FACULTY EMERITI

Bruce J. Altshuler 

Clinical Professor Emeritus of Museums Studies
 

Director of the Program in Museum Studies from January 2001 through August 2021,
Bruce Altshuler currently focuses his research on the history of art exhibitions. Initially
trained in Philosophy (PhD, Harvard University), he taught the subject until moving to
work in museums and the artworld, holding positions at the New-York Historical Society,
Zabriskie Gallery, Christie’s Education, and as Director of the Isamu Noguchi Garden
Museum. He also has been a member of the graduate faculty of the Bard Center for
Curatorial Studies, and the Board of Directors of the International Association of Art
Critics/United States Section (AICA/USA). Bruce has published extensively and
lectured internationally about exhibition and curatorial history, the history of museums,
and modern and contemporary art. He is author of The Avant-Garde in Exhibition: New
Art in the 20 th Century (1994/1998), Isamu Noguchi (1994), Salon to Biennial:
Exhibitions that Made Art History, 1863-1959 (2008), Biennials and Beyond: Exhibitions
that Made Art History, 1962-2002 (2013), editor of Collecting the New: Museums and
Contemporary Art (2005), and co-editor of Isamu Noguchi: Essays and Conversations
(1994). He has been a Dedalus Foundation Senior Fellow, and received the Sir Banister
Fletcher Award for the best 2008 publication on art or architecture in the UK.

Full Profile

 

Flora E. S. Kaplan

Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan, anthropologist, was a Professor Emerita, and a founding director (1978-99) of the Museum Studies Program, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, New York University. She taught Anthropology as a Fulbright professor, (1983-85), University of Benin, Nigeria; and previously taught at Lehman College, CUNY (1970-1976), before arriving at New York University in 1976. She published widely on Benin (Nigeria) and on Mexico, museum politics, art, photography, religion and gender. She held degrees in anthropology from The Graduate Center, CUNY (Ph.D.), and Columbia University (M.A., archaeology). Dr. Kaplan was a former curator of The Brooklyn Museum, New York. She was a research associate at the Museum of the American Indian, (1977-87), and was an associate at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU. She co-edited the books series 'Museum Meanings' (Routledge) and was a Board member of the journal 'Museums & Society' (University of Leicester Press) from 2004 until her passing. 

Bio Note from NMAI

 

STAFF

Program Administrator

Dominik Izdebski 

240 Greene Street, 4th Floor, Room 407

New York, NY 10003

Telephone: 212.998.8081

E-mail: dominik.izdebski@nyu.edu

 

Administrative Secretary

Charlie Maliha

240 Greene Street, 4th Floor 

New York, NY 10003

Telephone: 212.998.80882

E-mail: cm6232@nyu.edu

 

Staff Page