Welcome!

Here you can find some background on my work as an art historian and as a professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, in addition to links to some of my publications and presentations.

Contact info 

Some of My Publications (with links, if available):

On May Alcott Nieriker:

• New book!:  May Alcott Nieriker, Author and Advocate (Anthem Press, March 2022; paperback edition, July 2023)            *This book has been recognized as one of the "10 Essential New Books on Women Artists" by Artnet, March 2022.     Other mentions: "The Perks of Being a Booklover" podcast 12/7/22

• "Black Subjectivity in the Life and Art of May Alcott Nieriker," in The Forgotten Alcott: Essays on the Artistic Legacy and Literary Life of May Alcott Nieriker, eds. Azelina Flint and Lauren Hehmeyer (Routledge, 2021), 178-190.

• "Empowering American Women Artists: The Travel Writings of May Alcott Nieriker," Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (Autumn 2016).

• “The Multivalence of May Alcott Nieriker’s Studying Art Abroad & How to Do It Cheaply.”  Studies in Travel Writing 16 no.3 (Sept. 2012): 303-14. 

On Early Modern Women Artists:

• Life Stories of Women Artists, 1550-1800: An Anthology (2010; also available as an  ebook)

• "The Visual Arts" in The Routledge History of Early Modern Women, ed. Amanda Capern (2019). 335-356.

• “Making the Invisible Visible: The Presence of Older Women Artists in Early Modern Artistic  Biography.” Ageing Women in Literature and Visual Culture. Eds. Cathy McGlynn, Margaret  O’Neill and Michaela Schrage-Früh. Cham, Switzerland: Springer/Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 23- 40.

• "Vision and Insight: Portraits of the Aged Woman Artist, 1600-1800.” Occasion:  Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (Stanford University/Arcade) 4 (June 14 2012).

•  “Anecdotal Insights: Changing Perceptions of Italian Women Artists in 18th-century Life  Stories.” Eighteenth-Century Women 5 (2008): 29-51. 

•  “Sex, Lies, and Anecdotes: Gender Relations in the Life Stories of Italian Women Artists  1550-1800.” Aurora: The Journal of the History of Art 6 (2005):17-37. 

On Early Modern Women Artists & Modern Biofiction:

•  “Re-visiting the Renaissance Virtuosa in Recent Biofiction on Sofonisba Anguissola,” in Imagining Gender in Biographical Fiction, eds. Julia Novak and Caitríona Ní Dhúill (Springer/Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 297-316.

•  "The Role of Art in Recent Biofiction on Sofonisba Anguissola," in Authorizing Early Modern European Women. From Biography to Biofiction, eds.  James Fitzmaurice, Naomi Miller, and Sara Jane Steen (Amsterdam University Press, 2022).  219-233.

•  "Re-visiting the Renaissance Virtuosa in Recent Biofiction on Sofonisba Anguissola,” in Imagining Gender in Biographical Fiction, eds. Julia Novak and Caitríona Ní Dhúill (Springer/Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 297-316.

Some References to / Reviews of My Scholarship:

  On May Alcott: 

•   https://www.nastywomenwriters.com/may-alcott-nieriker-littlest-woman-biggest-ambition-american-1840-1879/

• Cécile Roudeau, in Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, vol. 22, no.1 (Spring 2023): http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring23/roudeau-reviews-may-alcott-nieriker-author-and-advocate-by-julia-dabbs

Future Projects:

• May Alcott Nieriker's Last Journal, and Selected Letters (in progress)

• May Alcott Nieriker, Artist (monograph)

• Critical edition of May Alcott Nieriker's Studying Art Abroad and How To Do It Cheaply (in progress)

• Visual Artists and Biofiction [edited collection; will be seeking essays in future]

Some of My Public Presentations:

•  “Researching May Alcott Nieriker: Past/Present Future,” invited presentation for the Louisa May Alcott Society, Nov. 28, 2022 [via zoom].

• "Black Subjectivity in the Life and Art of May Alcott Nieriker"         

• “Amy/May: Uncovering the Life & Art of the Youngest Alcott Sister,”

• “The Artful Lives of Women Artists,”                                                      

Contributions to Blogs and Podcasts:

• "Portraying May Alcott Nieriker." Art Herstory, May 2022.

• "New Adventures in Teaching Art Herstory" Art Herstory, June 2019

•   "Art History at Bedtime": translated life story of Sofonisba Anguissola read by Bendor Grosvenor

Interviews and Press Releases:

• KUMD (Duluth), "The Real-life Amy" (Oct. 6, 2020)

• KKOK/KMRS (Morris), "Little Women Film Series" (Jan. 17, 2020)

• Univ. of Minnesota Horace T. Morse Award (2020)

• "Stitch in Time" (UMM Profile story on barn quilt project with first-year students (Fall 2019)

Courses I teach:  

 "Interpreting the Visual World: an Introduction to Art History;"  "Renaissance to Modern Art;" "Art+History, UMM+Community;"     "Memorials & Memorialization;"  "Italian Renaissance Art;"   "After Leonardo: Mannerist and Venetian Renaissance Art;"  "Baroque Art;" "Women & Art;" "American Art Before 1900;"  "Facing the Past: Portraiture and Social History."

My C.V.

My Academia.edu page

[cover image: detail from G. Metsu, A Young Woman Seated Drawing, c. 1660;  London, Nat'l Gallery; I write about this painting in my essay, "The Visual Arts," cited above.]