Katie Larson, PhD

Assistant Professor of Art History
Modern & Contemporary

Dr. Katie Larson holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from the University of Michigan. Before coming to Baylor, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the Maryland Institute College of Art. 

Dr. Larson’s research examines avant-garde artistic activity in postwar Italy. She is at work on a book manuscript on the early career of Alberto Burri (1915–95), which will advance a fundamentally new understanding of the prominent mixed media artist and his circle in Rome. The project reframes his early artistic development within the context of the arts journal Arti Visive (Visual Arts) (1952–58), a publication whose editors actively engaged with questions about the social, cultural, and political dimensions of abstract art. She is also completing an article on early uses of screen-printing by artists in Europe during the 1940s and ’50s. 

Her scholarship has been supported by numerous fellowships and grants. She recently served as the 2021–22 Scholar-in-Residence at Magazzino Italian Art, a museum and research center dedicated to postwar and contemporary art. In 2015–16, she was awarded a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and in 2016–17 she was named a PhD Scholar by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Dr. Larson has presented her research at the College Art Association Annual Conference, Magazzino Italian Art, the American Academy in Rome, and the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica. Her work has been published in Art Journal, Oxford Art Journal, Art Inquiries, ASAP/J and CAA reviews.

Dr. Larson has taught courses on global and Western art history including survey of world art, illustration history, and museum studies. At Baylor, she teaches ARTH 1300, Introduction to Art for Non-Majors and upper-level seminars on modern and contemporary subjects.