Dr. Elizabeth Hawley
Biography
Elizabeth “Betsy” S. Hawley (she/her) is an art historian, writer, and curator specializing in modern and contemporary art and art of the Americas. She joined the faculty at the University of South Alabama in 2022, after previously holding visiting faculty positions at Boston University, Earlham College, Northeastern University, and Santa Clara University. She has also taught courses at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, St. Francis College, and senior colleges at the City University of New York. Born and raised in Birmingham, she is thrilled to be back in Alabama.
Research
Dr. Hawley's research often focuses on Native North American art of the 20th and 21st centuries, and other areas of expertise include ecocritical art, feminist/women’s art, political/activist art, and art of the American West. Her work is grounded in theories of intersectionality, decolonization, and transcultural circuits of influence, and her research has been supported by the Lunder Institute for American Art, Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Pittsburgh Foundation. Her current book project, under contract with the University of Nebraska Press, tracks the ways Pueblo and Anglo-American artists in New Mexico grappled with fallacies of authentic Indigeneity and biases regarding gender roles in art production during the first half of the twentieth century. She also maintains an active curatorial practice, recently organizing Native Feminisms (2021) at NYC gallery apexart. Previously, she curated or contributed to shows at MoMA, the Laguna Art Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dr. Hawley is currently working on two exhibitions: Landscapes of Survivance (Santa Clara University Art Gallery, 2023) and Borderwaters (Alabama Contemporary Art Center, 2023).