As the founder and director of Bard Graduate Center, my overall interests lie in the study of objects—not only what we can learn from them about how we live now, but how they teach us about how we lived in the past. My own research has focused predominantly on British decorative arts and design of the 18th and 19th centuries. I began my exploration of this area in my dissertation on the work of E.W. Godwin, followed by exhibitions and publications devoted to other British designers such as Thomas Jeckyll, James “Athenian” Stuart, and William Kent. However, over the past few years I have broadened my research beyond British design into other areas of material culture, such as the history of the American circus and Swedish wooden toys. These projects not only reflect my diverse personal interests but the overall breadth and depth of the BGC’s academic and exhibition programs.

Selected Recent Publications

Co-editor and contributing author, J. Lockwood Kipling: Bombay, the Punjab, South Kensington. New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming.

Co-editor and contributing author, Swedish Wooden Toys. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014.

Editor and contributing author, William Kent, Designing Georgian Britain. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

Co-editor and contributing author, American Circus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.

Contributing author, Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.

Editor and contributing author, James “Athenian” Stuart. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Contributing author, Georg Jensen Jewelry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

Founder and publisher, Source: Notes in the History of Art, a quarterly devoted to art history and archaeology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980-present.