PhD Candidate; History of Photography, Guest Lecture Series Coordinator; GSHAAA
she/her
Renée Brown studies modern art and visual culture with a focus on the history of photography. She holds an MFA in Art Writing form the School of Visual Arts and an MA in Sociocultural Anthropology from Columbia University, where her thesis explored Berenice Abbott and Elizabeth McCausland’s unpublished manuscript for Changing New York (1939). Renée’s research interests encompass photographic archives, text-image relationships, and photo-based philosophies of knowledge. She is currently working on a dissertation about photo librarian Paul Vanderbilt.
Dissertation in Progress:
“Eye to Eye: Paul Vanderbilt and the Ordering of Photographic Knowledge, 1940-1970”
Research Interests:
- History of photography
- Modern art and visual culture
- American Art
2023-2024:
Guest Lecture Series Coordinator, Graduate Student History of Art & Architecture Association
2022-2023:
GSO Representative, Graduate Student History of Art & Architecture Association