Elizabeth Otto
PhD
On Research Leave 2022-2023 Academic Year
Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History
Interests
European and US-American art and visual culture from the nineteenth century to the present; issues of gender, history, and theory; and the history of photography, film, and media culture
Named Humanities Institute Director, beginning in Fall 2023.
Education
- PhD, The History of Art, Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, The University of Michigan
- MA, Art History, Queen's University, Canada
- BA, Art History, Oberlin College
Books
- Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics, MIT Press, 2019.
- Bauhaus Women: A Global Perspective (with Patrick Rössler), English edition: Bloomsbury UK; German edition: Knesebeck Verlag, 2019.
- Tempo, Tempo!: The Bauhaus Photomontages of Marianne Brandt, Jovis Verlag/Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, Museum of Design; Harvard Art Museums; and the International Center for Photography, New York, 2005.
Edited books
- Bauhaus Bodies: Gender, Sexuality, and Body Culture in Modernism's Legendary Art School, (with Patrick Rössler), Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019.
- 4 "Bauhausmädels": Gertrud Arndt, Marianne Brandt, Margarete Heymann, Margaretha Reichardt (with Patrick Rössler, Kai-Uwe Schierz, and Miriam Krautwurst), Sandstein Verlag, 2019. Bilingual catalogue to the co-curated exhibition at the Angermuseum, Erfurt, and in Berlin at the Thuringian State Federal Representaton Building. Exhibition
- Art and Resistance in Germany (with Deborah Ascher Barnstone), Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
- Passages of Exile (with Burcu Dogramaci), 2017, Edition Text + Kritik, 2017.
- New Woman International: Representations in Photography and Film from the 1870s through the 1960s (with Vanessa Rocco), The University of Michigan Press, 2011.
Selected Publications
Awards
- Gerda Henkel Stiftung Fellow, Germany, 2022–2023
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Research, inaugural Kurt and Thea Sonnenmark Memorial Fellow, Fall 2022
- Cape Cod Modern Residency, Curator, Fall 2022
- Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Getty Scholar, 2021–2022
- Northeast Popular & American Culture Association, Peter C. Rollins Book Prize, 2020
- The Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow, 2019–2020
- National Humanities Center, Frank H. Kenan Fellow, 2017–2018
- University at Buffalo Gender Institute Excellence in Mentoring Award, 2017
- Center for Advanced Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Visiting Fellow, 2016
- The University of Pittsburgh’s Humanities Center, Early Career Residential Fellowship, 2010–2011
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Chancellor Fellowship, 2004–2005
Previous Roles
- Executive Director, Humanities Institute, College of Arts and Sciences, 2013-2017 and 2018-2019
My work is based in a profound belief in art and visual culture’s capacity not only to reflect the past and the present but also to imagine and shape a better future.