Yale Center for British Art Welcomes Christina Ferando as Head of Academic Affairs

August 12, 2024

The Yale Center for British Art announces the appointment of Christina Ferando as the inaugural Head of Academic Affairs. Ferando, who was previously the Residential College Dean of Jonathan Edwards College (JE) and Lecturer in History of Art at Yale, joins the museum on August 12, 2024. 

In this role, Ferando will lead the museum’s comprehensive research program, dedicated to the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and the history of British art. She will develop and implement a holistic research strategy for the YCBA, expanding and facilitating existing research initiatives while also developing new programs. The museum’s research program supports curators, scholars, faculty, and graduate students at Yale University and beyond, through residential awards, symposia, and other research opportunities.

“I am thrilled that Christina Ferando is joining the YCBA. Her research and pedagogical experience working with Yale faculty and students has contributed to academic life on campus. She will foster a vibrant and innovative research culture at the museum and promote inter-institutional projects nationally and internationally,” said Rachel Chatalbash, Deputy Director for Academic Affairs, Education, and Research.

Ferando was the Residential College Dean of JE since 2016. As JE’s chief academic officer, she provided strategic leadership within the college and served on a variety of committees in the Yale College Dean’s Office. Ferando also served as the Director of the Residential College Seminar Program.

“I am delighted to be joining the Yale Center for British Art,” noted Christina Ferando. “As both an undergraduate and in my recent roles at Yale, particularly as a Lecturer in the Department of History of Art, I have had the privilege to admire, learn from, and teach with the YCBA’s world-class collection and to do so in a magnificent, internationally renowned building. My new colleagues at the museum have been doing cutting-edge work to reveal the depth and breadth of British art, highlighting the dynamic and complex interconnections between Britain and the globe. I look forward to collaborating with them and colleagues at other institutions to continue this important work and to bring British art, writ large, to a broad public and scholarly audience.”

Ferando is a specialist in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European and American art and has held fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. She has taught undergraduate courses at Columbia University, Williams College, and Yale University.

Her publications include articles in The Burlington Magazine, Word and Image, and several edited volumes. Her book, Exhibiting Antonio Canova: Display and the Transformation of Sculptural Theory, was published in 2023. She is currently working on two research projects: the first examines the intersection of art, industry, and religion in the late nineteenth century, and the second explores the legacy of classicism in the modern era.

Ferando earned a BA from Yale College and both an MA in critical and curatorial studies in modern art and a PhD in art history and archaeology, with distinction, from Columbia University.