Pratt Institute

Education

Ph.D., M. Phil., M.A. Art History, CUNY
Certificate (History), Oxford Univ. UK
TESOL, Columbia University

Biography

Biography
Joyce C. Polistena’s research and teaching focus on European and American art of the 19th and early 20th centuries, with emphasis on French Romanticism and the artist Eugène Delacroix, as well as American Art through WW I. Her current research interests involve the issue of artistic subjectivity in its exploration of spiritual/philosophical formulations in visual representations and the question of aesthetic language as a mediator between individuality and collectivity. A member of the Pratt Institute faculty since 1997, Dr. Polistena is a member of the Board of Directors of ASCHA.

Recent publications and presentations:
“The Image of Mary of the Miraculous Medal: A Valiant Woman” in Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (2012), a Festshrift in honor of Patricia Mainardi. “Scenes of 'The Passion' in Romantic Art: a Mirror of Bourgeois Ambition”, in ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art, Cascade Books, 2013.

“ Nouvelles sources pour le cycle de peintures muralses de Delacroix à Saint-Sulpice,” Bulletin du Société des amis du Musée nationale Eugène Delacroix, 2009.

The Religious Paintings of Eugene Delacroix (1798- 1863): the Initiator of the Style of Modern Religious Art, with an Introduction by Barthélémy Jobert, Mellen Press, 2008.

“In Good Faith: Straining for Order Out of Chaos,”at the symposium Faith, Identity, and History: Representations of Christianity in Modern and Contemporary African American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (2012).

Introduction to the Landscape Paintings of Hijo (Ducka) Nam, exh. cat. (Seoul, 2012).

Additional essays in The Van Gogh Museum Journal (2001); Religion and the Arts (2000); Italian Americans and the Arts and Culture (2005).

Dr.Polistena has also presented several papers at The College Art Association, The Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA), Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), The North East Popular Culture Association, among other scholarly conferences.

For more information about faculty publications, presentations, and other activities visit the Faculty Research page, and read the latest faculty news on HADPRATT.