Janet Catherine Berlo


Janet Catherine Berlo is an American art historian and academic, noted for her publications and research into the visual arts heritage of Native American and pre-Columbian cultures. She has also published and lectured on gender studies, the representation and participation of women in indigenous and visual arts, the history of graphic arts since the mid-19th century, indigenous textile arts, and American quilting history and traditions. In the early portion of her academic career Berlo made notable contributions towards the understanding of the art and iconography of Mesoamerica, in particular that of the Classic-period Teotihuacan civilization. Since 2003 Berlo has held the position of Professor of Art History and Visual and Cultural Studies at the Department of Art and Art History, University of Rochester, New York.

Education and academic career

Berlo attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she obtained a B.A. Summa Cum Laude in 1974. Her postgraduate studies were undertaken at Yale, where she completed a Master's in art history in 1976, and her Ph.D. in the same subject area was awarded in 1980.
After a semester as an instructor at Yale while completing her PhD, in the 1979–80 academic year Berlo became an assistant professor in the Art Department at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Excepting some periods of leave and visiting appointments, Berlo remained associated with the UMSL for the next 17 years, reaching associate professor in 1985 and a full professorship in 1990.
In 1997 Berlo left UMSL for the University of Rochester, where for five years she held the positions of Susan B. Anthony Professor of Gender Studies and Professor of Art History. After a semester in 2002 as a visiting professor at Harvard, in 2003 she returned to Rochester as Professor of Art History and Visual and Cultural Studies.
In 2004 Berlo obtained a visiting fellowship at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to research "19th-century women’s textiles and their place in American culture".

Publications