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Heather L. Sale Holian
Assistant Professor
Art History
M. A., Ph. D. University of Indiana
B. A. cum laude, University of Arizona
Heather Holian earned her Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance Art History with minors in Medieval and Roman Art. She teaches a range of topics including the Introduction to Art, various courses in the areas of Ancient and Medieval art history, as well as the Art of Disney and Pixar, a course she designed.
In her classroom and scholarship, Professor Holian explores art through the methodologies of social, cultural, formalist and feminist art history. Her current Renaissance research focuses on sixteenth and seventeenth century Italian court portraiture, and particularly that of women and daughters belonging to the Medici family of Florence. Her recent papers and published articles explore the function of jewelry as dynastic “marker” within portraits of Medici women and marriageable girls, and the related social issue of women as dynastic commodity during this period, as communicated through these works.
In addition, Professor Holian’s Art of Disney and Pixar course opened a second avenue of critical inquiry, in which she explores the status and history of animation within a fine art context. Her scholarly work in this area gives particular attention to the position of the Pixar Animation Studios within this dialogue. A forthcoming essay published by Blackwell Publishing addresses these issues, as will a paper presented in July 2010 at the annual conference of the Society of Animation Studies in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Professor Holian has also published articles on Giotto’s Arena Chapel, the portraits of Medici Grand Duchess Bianca Cappello, and the portraiture of Agnolo Bronzino. She routinely presents academic papers at international, national, and regional conferences on a diverse array of topics related to Renaissance portraiture, as well as studio animation.