Lisa Strong is Director of the Art & Museum Studies MA Program. Since 2014 she has led the program’s academic and professional development, teaching its core graduate seminar in museum theory and practice as well as courses in American art and museum studies.
Before joining Georgetown, Strong was at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (2008-2014). She served as Project Manager and Assistant Editor for Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945 and as Manager of Curatorial Affairs, coordinating major departmental initiatives for Registration, Exhibitions, and Conservation. Strong managed the Curatorial Department's migration to a new collections management database and the development of mobile tours for the permanent collection. She organized collection committee meetings, oversaw deaccession processes, administered departmental budgets, and acted as liaison across departments.
Prior to her time at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Strong was Assistant Professor of Art History at James Madison University (1999–2002), where she taught courses in American art and served as interim co-chair of the art history area. As Guest Curator at the Amon Carter Museum, she organized the traveling exhibition Sentimental Journey: The Art of Alfred Jacob Miller (2008–2009) and authored the accompanying scholarly catalogue. The exhibition traveled to the Joslyn Art Museum and was supported in part by a National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces grant.
Her scholarship focuses on eighteenth- through twentieth-century American art, with particular emphasis on the art of the American West, cross-cultural encounter, and museum history. She is the author of Sentimental Journey: The Art of Alfred Jacob Miller (2008) and The James E. Sowell Collection (2008), and has published widely on Alfred Jacob Miller, Karl Bodmer, John Mix Stanley, Native American representation, and the politics of museum interpretation. Her work has appeared in journals including American Art and Winterthur Portfolio, as well as in numerous edited volumes and exhibition catalogues.
Strong received her Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University in 1998. Recognition and support for her work have included a National Endowment for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Winterthur Museum, a Davidson Family Fellowship at the Amon Carter Museum, a Luce/ACLS Pre-Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, and a President’s Fellowship and Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education. At Georgetown, she has received grants supporting digital humanities initiatives, including the collaborative “Pilgrimage Project” and a Wikipedia editing project designed to expand public knowledge of underrepresented artists and museums. She currently serves as Secretary of the Faculty Senate on Georgetown’s main campus.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- Professor of the Practice, College - Department of Art & Art History