Research Interests

I specialize in the visual and intellectual culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth century Low Countries. My research interests have included the nature and implications of Dutch exploration and trade, particularly to West Africa and the Atlantic; theories of intercultural encounters and exchange; natural and moral philosophy; and the emergence of empirical science, ideas of rationality, law, economics, and imperialism as related to visual culture in prints and book illustrations. I have published on animal and environmental  art and ethics, and how a phenomenology of art can illuminate these issues. All my work has been feminist and post-colonial in its theoretical framing. I seek to empower my students and all people  interested in art, and amplify voices as part of art historical methodology.