GDS: Every Eye is Upon Me: First Ladies of The United States by Penn Alumni

Behind the Scenes with Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw

Join Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Class of 1940 Bicentennial Term Professor in the History of Art Department, for a discussion of the largest exhibition ever of portraits of First Ladies, currently on view at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. It is the first major exhibition to explore the historical significance of this prominent position through the mode of portraiture. The exhibition will span nearly 250 years and will feature more than 60 portraits of the First Ladies, alongside related ephemera including iconic dresses.

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw is the Class of 1940 Bicentennial Term Associate Professor and affiliated faculty in Latin American and Latino Studies, Cinema Studies, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. She received her PhD in art history from Stanford University and then held an appointment as an assistant professor of History of Art and African and African American Studies at Harvard University for five years before coming to the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the National Portrait Gallery; has received a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Ford Foundation; and spent a quarter as a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Washington. At Penn, she has served as a faculty fellow and as a faculty director in the College House system; and directed the undergraduate majors in History of Art and in Visual Studies. She has been honored with the School of Arts and Sciences Award for Innovation in Teaching and the Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Event Host: Penn Alumni
Date: Tuesday, January 19
Time: 11:00 AM CT
Location: Virtual
Cost: FREE