JAHMS Faculty Advisor Headshots/Bios

Dr. Rich is Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art History and Museum Studies. He is also Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Polk Museum of Art and Director of the Melvin and Burks Galleries on campus. Dr. Rich is a specialist in Modern and Contemporary art history, with a particular focus on European and American art of the 19th and 20th centuries. He earned his Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and his A.B. from Dartmouth College. His dissertation, entitled “Artist or Critic?: Guy Pène du Bois & the Search for Artistic Identity,” examined the under-recognized legacy of the artist and art critic Guy Pène du Bois, who was a key figure in the advent of modern art in America but is virtually unknown today.

Dr. Carter earned her Ph.D in Art History and Theory from the University of British Columbia. Before joining Florida Southern as an Assistant Professor, she taught modern and contemporary art history at UBC and Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Dr. Carter is a specialist in modern and contemporary art history, with a particular focus on American art in the 1960s and 1970s. Her research interests include modes of viewership, participation, subject formation, and institutional critique with an emphasis on post-1968 artistic praxis and pedagogy.

Ms. Baires is the Administrative Assistant to the Executive Director and the Department of Art History and Museum Studies. She serves as Curator to the Melvin and Burks Galleries at Florida Southern College and as adjunct faculty. She received her BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Painting and a minor in Art History from Florida Southern College.