Dr. Katherine Poole-Jones
Art History
Katherine Poole-Jones is a Professor of Art History at SIUE, specializing in early modern Italy. She teaches both halves of the introductory survey course in art history, as well as upper level courses on the Italian Renaissance, the Northern Renaissance, the Baroque period, Islamic art and architecture, and the public monument in Renaissance and Baroque Italy. She also team-teaches an Interdisciplinary Studies course on the history of museums and is very active in the Women’s Studies Department at SIUE, frequently giving lectures to support the program, and also teaching two of her most popular courses, Women in Art and Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy, as cross-listed offerings.
Professor Poole-Jones received a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy in 2005-2006 to complete the research the resulted in her dissertation, The Medici Grand Dukes and the Art of Conquest: Ruling Identity and the Formation of a Tuscan Empire, 1537-1609, and she has published several essays on the Medici family and their use of patronage as propaganda. She also has presented her research widely, including at the Renaissance Society of America conference and the College Art Association conference, as well as maintains a strong relationship with the St. Louis Art Museum where she has presented numerous gallery talks as well as the Women’s History Month lecture in 2014. Her current research investigates the public monuments of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century St. Louis and the role they played in shaping collective memory and civic identity in the post-bellum years. She received her Ph.D. in art history from Rutgers University (2007) and an M.A., also in art history, from American University (2002).
Prof. Poole-Jones’ teaching philosophy is as follows:
“I entered the teaching profession because I loved being a student. The same aspects of academia that stimulated me during my college years, the open exchange of ideas and the intellectual challenges and discoveries, continue to inspire me as a professor. My own liberal arts background as an undergraduate instilled in me the critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity, and academic self-confidence that are instrumental to my success as an educator. I also owe my desire to enter the teaching profession to the example set by my professors, specifically their focus on challenging and dynamic classroom instruction, but above all, their unwavering commitment to their students. I now strive to recreate that inspirational educational atmosphere with my own students here at SIUE.
I would like to think that every student will leave my classroom with a new passion for art history. Regardless, they will possess an understanding of the importance and relevance of studying art history, both as a tool for examining diverse cultures and time periods, and as a path to a greater appreciation of their own world.”
“Public Monuments in Renaissance Italy” in The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Renaissance World, General Editor, Kristen Poole (publication expected 2024)
“Historical Memory, Reconciliation, and the Shaping of the Postbellum Landscape: The Civil War Monuments of Forest Park, St. Louis” in Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art (Spring 2020, 6.1); https://bit.ly/38zcKGB
“The Medici, Maritime Empire, and the Enduring Legacy of the Cavalieri di Santo Stefano,” in Florence in the Early Modern World: New Perspectives, eds. Brian Maxson and Nicholas Baker, 156-186 (New York: Routledge Publishers, 2019)
“A Tale of Two Removals: Public Monuments and Civil War Memory in St. Louis,” in Monumental Troubles: Rethinking What Monuments Mean Today, eds. Erika Doss and Cheryl K. Snay (CurateND/University of Notre Dame, 2018), 29-41; doi:10.7274/r0-30e5-2840
“Heroines and Triumphs: Visual Exemplars, Family Politics, and Gender Ideology in Baroque Rome,” in Midwestern Arcadia: Essays in Honor of Alison Kettering (Northfield, MN: Carleton College, 2014); https://apps.carleton.edu/kettering/
“Medici Power and Tuscan Unity: The Iconography of the Cavalieri di Santo Stefano and Public Sculpture in Pisa and Livorno under Ferdinando I” in A Scarlett Renaissance, ed. A. Victor Coonin, 239-266 (New York: Italica Press, 2013)
“Christian Crusade as Spectacle: Medici Festival Decoration and the Cavalieri di Santo Stefano” in Push Me, Pull You: Physical and Spatial Interaction in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art, 2 vols., eds. Sarah Blick and Laura Gelfand, 2: 383-420 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2011)
Selected Presentations and Invited Lectures:
2018 Midwest Art History Association Conference, Indianapolis: A Tale of Two Removals: Public Monuments and Civil War Memory in St. Louis
2017 SECAC Conference, Columbus, OH: The Monuments of Forest Park, St. Louis, 1876-1917: Crafting Public Identity and Ideology in the Postbellum United States
2017 College Art Association Conference, New York City: Active Art History: Engaging Studio Artists Through Project-Based Learning
2017 Gallery Talk, St. Louis Art Museum: From Object to Artist: Women in the Collection
2014 Gallery Talk, St. Louis Art Museum: Renaissance Ideals
2014 Renaissance Society of America Conference, New York City: Water Power: Ferdinando I de’ Medici and the Renaissance Naumachia
2014 Invited Lecture, St. Louis Art Museum: Berthe Morisot in the Impressionist Circle
2013 Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, St. Louis University: The Cavalieri di Santo Stefano and the Art of Grand-Ducal Florence
2013 A Scarlet Renaissance Symposium, Rutgers University: The Medici Grand Dukes and the Enduring Visual Legacy of the Cavalieri di Santo Stefano
2011 Invited Lecture, Carleton College, Northfield, MN: Heroines and Triumphs: Visual Exemplars, Family Politics, and Gender Ideology in Baroque Rome
2011 Renaissance Society of America Conference, Montreal: The Art of Christian Triumph: Celebrating Ottoman Defeat and Forging Knightly Identity at the Church of Santo Stefano in Pisa
2011 Invited Lecture, Webster University, St. Louis, MO: Objects of Beauty: Female Portraiture and the Renaissance Ideal
2010 Gallery Talk, St. Louis Art Museum: Strong, Brave, and Feisty: Heroic Women in the Collection
2010 Renaissance Society of America Conference, Venice: Human Spoils of the Sea: Ferdinando I de’ Medici, The Galleys of Santo Stefano and the Mediterranean Slave Trade
2010 Gallery Talk, St. Louis Art Museum: Virtue and Vice: Female Portraiture from the Collection
2009 Renaissance Society of America Conference, Los Angeles: Grand Ducal Prestige, Catholic Unity: The Cavalieri di Santo Stefano and the Medici Weddings of 1589 and 1608
HONORS AND AWARDS
2005 – 2006 J. William Fulbright Fellowship; in residence at Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Florence, Italy
