The College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin has named Professor Susan Rather as chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Rather, a scholar of American Art, had served as interim chair since spring 2019. She will hold the Meredith and Cornelia Long Chair in Art and Art History.
“I’m grateful to Susan Rather for her steady, calm leadership during the interim transition period this past year. She’s proved yet more capable in guiding the department through the gigantic challenges and disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Doug Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts. “I have high confidence in Susan’s leadership and have enjoyed working with her, and I look forward to continuing to do so as we advance the mission of the Department of Art and Art History.”
A distinguished senior member of the faculty, Rather began her career at UT Austin more than three decades ago, after receiving a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Delaware. Her initial engagement with issues of modernism in twentieth-century American and European sculpture culminated in the publication of Archaism, Modernism, and the Art of Paul Manship (1993).
Since then, Rather has been a leading scholar of earlier American art, recipient of several grants from the National Endowment for Humanities and the inaugural senior fellowship in the Tyson Scholars program at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Her articles and book reviews have appeared in a wide range of journals, including American Art, Art Bulletin, Art Journal, CAA.Reviews, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Journal of the Early Republic, Metropolitan Museum Journal, Source, Theatre Notebook, William and Mary Quarterly and Winterthur Portfolio, and she is the author of numerous essays in exhibition catalogues and edited volumes.
Rather’s most recent book, The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era, received the Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in American Art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New England Society Prize for Art, and earned a spot on the short list for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History.
Rather is the first woman and first art historian in several decades to hold the position of chair for the department. Her previous administrative positions have included associate chair, head of the art history division and graduate advisor for art history.
“After long disciplinary identification with art history, becoming chair of a department encompassing so many talented and passionate artists and art educators has been a fresh and rewarding experience,” said Rather. “I learn from colleagues, students and staff every day and firmly believe that our collective resilience and commitment to create, inspire, study, explore and expand will see us through this tremendously challenging time and into a strong future.”
Contact: Alicia Dietrich, College of Fine Arts, The University of Texas at Austin, alicia.dietrich@austin.utexas.edu, 512-475-7033.