Current position
Professor emerita, Art History and Visual Culture, Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo
Employment history
Full Professor (since 2017), tenured, Art History and Visual Culture, Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo
2017-2018 Advisor to the Associate Vice-President,
Waterloo International, International Travel, University of Waterloo
2003-2017 Associate Professor, Art History and Visual Culture,
Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo
2011-2015 Department Chair
Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo
1998-2003 Assistant Professor of Art History, tenure-track,
Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo
1996-1998 Assistant Professor of Art History, two one-year contracts,
Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo
1994-1996 Sessional Instructor,
Department of History in Art, University of Victoria, British Columbia
1996 Sessional Instructor,
Department of Fine Arts, University of British Columbia
1991-1993 Instructor,
Centre for Extramural Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London
Education
Doctorate in the History of Art,
University College, London
Dissertation: “Eighteenth-Century British Monuments and the Politics of Empire”
Supervisor: Professor David Bindman
PhD awarded September 1993
Master of Arts, Art History
Queen’s University, Canada
Thesis: “Design and Patronage: The Architecture of the Niagara Parks, 1935-1941”
Degree awarded in 1989
Bachelor of Arts, Art History Specialization
University of Toronto
Honours degree with distinction awarded 1987
Publications
Books
Then and Now: Collecting and Classicism in Eighteenth-century England. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015, 340 pages.
Persuasion and Propaganda: Monuments and the Eighteenth-century British Empire. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006, 496 pages.
Current Research
The Humours of Venus. Sole-authored book about representations of the Venus de’Medici in eighteenth-century Britain.
Anglo ‘Civility’ in a Global Context: Town and Site Planning in the Era of New Imperialism. Sole-authored book.
Edited Volumes
Chapters in books, peer reviewed
“The Architecture of Tourism: Banff and Niagara Falls.” In Classicism in Canada: Ambition Utopia Hubris, edited by Joan Coutu with David Galbraith. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2026.
“Looking Softly at Architectural History: Eroding the Hegemony of Formalism.” In Women and Architectural History: The Monstrous Regiment Then and Now, edited by Dana Arnold, 187-204. London: Routledge, 2025. Recipient of commendation for the Colvin Prize, Society of Architectural Historians, Great Britain.
“Burke’s Exemplum: The ‘Natural Family Mansion’ and Wentworth Woodhouse.” In Politics and the English Country House, 1688-1800, edited by Joan Coutu, Jon Stobart, Peter Lindfield, 151-69. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023.
“Collecting and the Country House, 1750-1840.” In The Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts, edited by Maureen McCue and Sophie Thomas, 113-29. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022.
“‘Pellatt’s Folly,’ Casa Loma, 1920-1934.” In Casa Loma: Medievalism, Modernity and Millionaires in Toronto's Gilded Age, edited by Matthew Reeve and Michael Windover. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023.
“‘Toronto’s White Elephant,’ ‘Canada’s Famous Castle,’ Casa Loma, 1930-1970.” In Casa Loma: Medievalism, Modernity and Millionaires in Toronto's Gilded Age, edited by Matthew Reeve and Michael Windover. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023.
“Sculpture and the Forming of National Tastes in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century.” In The “British” School of Sculpture, c.1762-1835. edited by Sarah Burnage and Jason Edwards, 34-53. London & New York: Routledge (Ashgate), 2017.
“On Being There: The Significance of Place and the Grand Tour for Britons in the Eighteenth Century.” In Agents of Space: Eighteenth-Century Art, Architecture and Visual Culture, edited by Christina Smylitopoulos, 20-42. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2016.
“Collecting a Canon: the Earl of Northumberland at Northumberland House and Syon.” Burning Bright: Essays in Honour of David Bindman, edited by Diana Dethloff, Caroline Elam, Tessa Murdoch & Kim Sloan, 55-65. London: University College, London Press, 2015.
“Setting the Empire in Stone: Commemorating Wolfe at Stowe.” In The Culture of the Seven Years’ War: Empire, Identity and the Arts in the Eighteenth-century Atlantic World, edited by Frans de Bruyn and Shaun Regan, 259-83. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.
Co-authored with John McAleer (50%). “‘The Immortal Wolfe’? Monuments, memory and the Battle of Quebec.” In 1759 Remembered, edited by Philip Buckner and John Reid,29-57. University of Toronto Press, 2012.
“A Drive Through Canadian History: People, Cars and Public Art at Niagara Falls in the 1930s.” In Public Art in Canada, edited by Annie Gérin & Jim MacLean, 45-64. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010.
“Legitimating the Empire: the Monument to General Wolfe in Westminster Abbey.” In Conflicting Visions, edited by Geoffrey Quilley & John Bonehill, 61-84. London: Ashgate Press, 2005.
“William Chambers and Joseph Wilton.” In William Chambers, Architect to George III, edited by John Harris and Michael Snodin, 175-85. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
Journal articles, peer reviewed
“Re-inscribing a Monument: Vimy in the Canadian Consciousness.” Études canadiennes / Canadian Studies (Association françaises d’études canadiennes), 80 (June, 2016): 67-86.
“Vehicles of Nationalism: Defining Canada in the 1930s.” The Journal of Canadian Studies 37:1 (Spring 2002): 180-203.
“‘A Very Grand and Seigneurial Design’: The Duke of Richmond’s Academy in Whitehall.” British Art Journal 1 (Spring, 2000): 47-54.
“The Rodney Monument in Jamaica and an Empire Coming of Age.” Sculpture Journal 2 (London, 1998): 46-57.
“Carving Histories: British Monuments in the West Indies.” Journal of the Church Monuments Society 12 (Britain, 1998): 77-85.
“Stowe--A Whig Training Ground.” New Arcadian Journal 43/44 (Leeds, 1997): 66-78.
“Philanthropy and Propaganda: Wilton’s Bust of George III in Montreal.” RACAR, XIX (1992, published 1994): 59-67.
Conference proceedings, peer reviewed
“Taste and the Ideal: Constructing National Memory in mid-eighteenth-century England.” The Challenge of the Object. Proceedings from the 33rd Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art, 2012. Nürnberg: Germanisches National Museum, 2013, pp. 1105-9.
Dictionary entries, peer reviewed
“Joseph Wilton.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, 1500 words.
Book reviews
Review of Mark Salber Phillips and Jordan Bear, eds. What Was History Painting and What Is It Now? (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019) in RACAR, 45:1 (2020): 91-92.
Review of Heather McPherson, Art and Celebrity in the Age of Reynolds and Siddons (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, 2017) in the Journal of British Studies 56:4 (2017): 874-75.
Review of Douglas Fordham, British Art and the Seven Years’ War (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010) in the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 35 (2012): 445-446.
Review of Gavin Stamp, The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme (London: Profile Books, 2007) in the Journal for the Study of Architecture in Canada 33 (2008): 65-67, (peer-reviewed). 1400 words.
Review of Julius Bryant, Thomas Banks 1735-1805, Britain’s First Modern Sculptor (London: Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2005) in the Burlington Magazine CXLVII (2005): 833. 750 words.
Review of Holger Hoock, The King’s Artists The Royal Academy and the Politics of British Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), Journal of British Studies 44:2 (2005): 376-8. 1000 words.
Online Series Contribution, peer reviewed:
“Monuments and Systems” in Monuments Must Fall, “Conversation Piece” Series, British Art Studies open access space, March 2023 (500 words). Link.
Exhibitions
Guest Curator, The Design Process of Leon Krier’s Laurentine Villa Project. Kingston, Canada: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 5 October - 24 November, 1991. Opened by H.R.H. Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.
Other research output
Symposia & Workshops
Collaboration with Rowena Willard Wright (National Trust, UK), John Bonehill (University of Glasgow), Claire Kennan (King’s College, London (UK)): “A Workshop in Ruins: Historic Environments over Time,” October 2024.
Organizer, with Jon Stobart, Peter Lindfield (both Manchester Metropolitan University) & Oliver Cox (Oxford): Houses of Politicians, 1688-1800. Manchester & Wentworth Woodhouse, November 2019.
Heritage toolkit
Country Houses and Politics in the 18th century: a guide to free online resources. Available on TORCH (University of Oxford) 2023. Written by Lucy Bailey with input from Oliver Cox and Joan Coutu.
Newsletter Contribution
“Planning in the Old and New Worlds,” Cumbria Archives Newsletter, Winter, 2025/2026, 17-20.
Conference presentations
“Storyland: Leaders and People on Parliament Hill.” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. Ottawa, 2025.
“Canadian Architectural History in the 20th century: Where did all the women go?” Universities Art Association of Canada, London, ON, 2024.
“New Imperialism: Thomas Mawson in Canada.” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. Winnipeg, 2024.
“Buying Sprees and Erudition: Antiquities and the Value of a Gallery.” International Society for Eighteenth-century Studies. Rome, 2023.
“Randy Habitus: Grand Tourists and the Allure of Venus.” International Society for Eighteenth-century Studies. Rome, 2023.
“Burke’s Exemplum: The ‘Natural Family Mansion’ and Wentworth Woodhouse.” Houses of Politicians, 1688-1800 symposium. Manchester, November, 2019.
“Beauty and Modernity: McQuesten, Beaux Arts Classicism, and Tourism in Ontario.” Thomas B. McQuesten symposium. Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington, Ontario, October, 2019.
“Si(gh)ting Venus: Statues, Identity, and the Aesthetic Turn.” International Society for Eighteenth-century Studies. Edinburgh, July, 2019.
“Living History Museums: Dead or Alive.” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Halifax, May, 2019.
“Edmund Burke and Wentworth Woodhouse, A Discursive Study.” Canadian Society for Eighteenth-century Studies, Niagara Falls, October, 2018.
“Pellatt’s Folly” | Toronto’s ‘White Elephant’ | “Canada’s Famous Castle.” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, St. John’s. May, 2018.
“Time and the Sublime: Edmund Burke and Historical Distance.” Universities Art Association of Canada, Montreal. October 2017.
“The Future of the Past: Copies of Antique Statues at Wentworth Woodhouse.” Conference: Art and the British Country House: Collecting and Display.” The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London. 7 October 2016. Juried & invited.
“Tucked away in the Archives and the Bush: The City Beautiful and the Garden City in Canada.” Universities Art Association of Canada, Montreal. October 2016.
“Collecting the Canon: the Earl of Northumberland at Northumberland House and Syon.” Universities Art Association of Canada (Historians of Eighteenth-century Art and Architecture Session), 2014.
“Re-inscribing a Monument: Vimy in the Canadian Consciousness.” War Memories: Commemoration, Re-enactment, Writing of War in the English-speaking World (18th to the 21st Centuries). International Conference, European University of Brittany and the Royal Military College of Canada, Rennes 2, June 2014.
“Tourist Trap at Niagara Falls: Where to Look?” Landscape, Nature, and Memory: Tourism History in Canada. Organized by Jack Little, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, October, 2014 & MANECCS Conference, Niagara Falls, September, 2014.
“Nostalgia and Memory: Imagining Rome in the Middle of the Eighteenth-century.” Universities Art Association of Canada, 2013.
“Pragmatism: Building Model Towns in Canada’s mid-North.” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2013.
“Building Utopias in the Bush: The Company Town and Corporate Paternalism in Canada’s Mid-north, 1900-1939.” Universities Art Association of Canada, 2012.
“Taste and the Ideal: Constructing National Memory in mid-eighteenth-century England.” 33rd Comité International d’histoire de l’Art Conference, Nuremberg, July 2012.
“Time, Space and Restitution: collecting sculpture in mid-eighteenth-century Britain.” Universities Art Association of Canada, Ottawa, 2011.
“Setting the Empire in Stone: Richard, Earl Temple and the Building of Stowe.” Conference: “Freemasonry and Empire.” Canonbury Masonic Research Centre, London, England, Oct. 2011.
“If You go out in the Woods Today….” Universities Art Association of Canada, Guelph, 2010.
“Whig Ideology and the forming of National Taste.” Conference: “’The British School of Sculpture’: Rethinking Sculptural Practice c1650-c1830.” University of York in collaboration with the Henry Moore Institute, York, U.K., 2009.
“Constructing Memories: Monuments to James Wolfe at the centre of the British Empire.” Conference: ‘1759 Revisited: The Conquest of Canada in Historical Perspective.’ Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, U.K., 2009.
“Constructing a Memory: The Monument to James Wolfe in Westminster Abbey.” Conference: ‘1759: Des Empires qui se font et se défont / Making And Unmaking Empires.’ Canadian Society for Eighteenth-century Studies Conference, Ottawa, 2009.
“An ‘Old Whig’: the second Marquis of Rockingham and his sculpture collection.” Canadian
Society for Eighteenth-century Studies Conference, Montreal, October 2008 and Universities Art Association of Canada Conference, Toronto, November 2008.
“Originals, copies, casts, whatever can be had: acquiring ‘master works’ in mid-18th-century Britain.” Universities Art Association of Canada Conference, Halifax, 2006.
“William Lock, the shadowy connoisseur.” Universities Art Association of Canada Conference.” Victoria, 2005.
“Epicurus and Pythagoras are in the Library and Cromwell and Peter the Great are in the Hall: The Persistence of Epicureanism in 18th-century England.” Association of Art Historians, Bristol, 2005.
“Reshaping the Land and Its History.” Congrès du Comité d’histoire de l’art, Montreal, 2004.
“Inviting the Neighbours: Touring Southern Ontario in the 1930s.” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Kingston, 2004.
“Dealing in Stone: The Sculpture Trade in London at Mid-century.” Universities Art Association of Canada, Kingston, 2003.
“Idiosyncratic Englishness: An Oxymoron?” Universities Art Association of Canada, Calgary, 2002.
“Fame and Fortunes: Funeral Monuments and the Definition of Self in the British West Indies”. Art and the British Empire Conference, Tate Britain, London, 2001.
“Patriotic Politicking? Public Monuments in the Atlantic Colonies in the Eighteenth Century.” Comité International d’histoire de l’art, London, 2000.
“A Noble Youthful Death: the Monument to Major General James Wolfe in Westminster Abbey.” Association of Art Historians, Edinburgh, 2000.
“Authenticating the New British Empire: The Monument to Wolfe in Westminster Abbey.”
Conflicting Visions: The Culture of War in Europe, c. 1660-1815, Leicester, 2000.
“Warts and All: The Roman-Style Portrait Bust in Mid-Eighteenth-Century England.” Universities Art Association of Canada, Toronto, 1999.
“Apollos of a New Generation: Collecting Antiquities in Eighteenth-century Britain.” Association of Art Historians Conference, Southampton & Winchester, 1999.
“Collecting the Laocoön in Eighteenth-Century England.” Universities Art Association of Canada, London (Ontario), 1998.
“Aesthetic Concerns? The English and the Laocoön in the Second half of the Eighteenth Century.”
Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 1998.
“Planting the Garden: The Cenotaphs at Stowe.” Canadian Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies, London (Ontario), 1997 & the Universities Art Association of Canada, Vancouver, 1997.
“A King and his People: George III and the Royal State Coach.” Universities Art Association of Canada, 1996.
“Bound by Identity: Canadian Art at the Wembley Empire Exhibition, 1924.” Universities Art Association of Canada Conference, Guelph, November, 1995.
“Re-creating Canadian History.” British Association of Canadian Studies Conference, Hull, England, 1995.
“Apollos of a New Generation: The Duke of Richmond’s Gallery in Whitehall.” Universities Art Association of Canada Conference, Halifax, 1994.
“The Stuff of Heroes? The Monument to James Wolfe in Westminster Abbey.” The Northwest Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vancouver, 1994.
“Stowe, A Whig Training Ground.” Keynote address at a symposium sponsored by the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (London) at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, 1995. Financial support provided by the Henry Moore Foundation.
“Neo-Classicism and the British Empire.” Lecture, University of Bristol, 1993.
“Philanthropy, Propaganda and Empire: The Bust of George III in Montreal.” Universities Art Associations of Canada Conference, Victoria, 1992 and the Association of Art Historians Conference, London, 1993.
“Empire Building: Eighteenth-Century British Funeral Monuments in the West Indies.” Association of Art Historians Conference, Leeds, 1992.
“Public Sculpture in the British Colonies: The Viewers’ Response.” Association of Art Historians Conference, London, 1991.
“Design and Patronage: The Architecture of the Niagara Parks, 1935-1941.” The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada Conference, Montreal, 1989.
Conference roundtables
Participant: “Still Surveying the Survey.” Chaired by Robin Alex McDonald. Universities Art Association of Canada, Québec, 2019.
With Laura Brandon, “Monumental Controversies: The Cape Breton Mother Canada Project.” In “Paragon of Democracy or Agent Provocateur? Public Art Controversies,” chaired by Analays Alvarez Hernandez. Universities Art Association of Canada, Waterloo, 2018.
Public lectures and interviews
4 lectures on Medieval Spaces at St. Teresa of Avila Church, Elmira, February-March 2018.
“Re-inscribing Vimy.” Canada-150 - lecture/symposium. Waterloo Public Library, 2017.
“Communism/Mother Canada monuments gone?” Radio interview with CBC’s As it Happens (Carol Off). 4 December 2015.
“Cape Breton’s ‘Mother Canada,’ and when monuments go wrong.” Radio interview with CBC’s The 180 (Jim Brown). 18 June 2015.
“The Nude in Western Culture.” The Museum, Kitchener, 2015.
“Public Art in Canada, 1918-1939: Forming an Identity.” Lecture, Museum London, Public Art Symposium, 2012.
“Niagara in the 1930s – A Drive Through History.” Willowbank School of Restoration Arts Queenston, 2010.
“Monuments and Memory.” Lecture, Outdoor Art Symposium, Kitchener, Ontario, 2005 and Gallery Stratford, 2005.
“Gothic Art and Architecture in Toronto.” Lecture, St. Michael’s Cathedral, Toronto, 2003.
“The Duke of Richmond’s Academy in Whitehall.” Lecture, Work-in-progress Series, Sir John Soane Museum, June, 1999.
“A Drive Through History: Canadian Spaces at Niagara.” Lecture, Centre for Canadian Studies, University of Toronto, 1995.
“Twentieth-century Canadian Architecture.” Lecture, University of the South Bank, London, 1992.
“Canadian Nationalism in Architecture, Landscape Design and Sculpture.” Lecture, South Bank Polytechnic, London, 1991.
Conference sessions chairs
“Disruption in the Long Eighteenth Century.” Co-chaired with Christina Smylitopoulos (Guelph). Universities Art Association of Canada, October 2025.
“Infrastructures: Settler Building Types in early twentieth-century Canada.” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Ottawa, May 2025.
“Hubris.” Universities Art Association of Canada, October 2023.
“Utopia and Hubris: Classicism in early Twentieth-century Canada,” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, June, 2021. Online.
“Historians of Eighteenth-century Art and Architecture,” Universities Art Association of Canada, Québec, 2019.
“Places, Spaces, and the Modern World”, Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, St. John’s, 2018.
Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture caucus. Universities Art Association of Canada, Banff, 2017.
“The Global Construction of Memory and Identity through Monumental Sculpture: the Twentieth-century Commemoration of Empire and War.” European History Section of the Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting. Organized by Derek Boetcher, St. Petersburg Beach, November 2016. Invited chair.
“Oral History, Diaspora, and The Thing,” co-chaired with Lora Senechal Carney. Universities Art Association of Canada, October 2016.
“Elisions: Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun,” co-chaired with Lora Senechal Carney. Universities Art Association of Canada, 2013.
“Remembering the Modern City of the Future,” co-chaired with Lora Senechal Carney. Universities Art Association of Canada, 2012.
“Ephemeral Visual History,” co-chaired with Lora Senechal Carney. Universities Art Association of Canada, 2011.
“Postcards from the Edge,” co-chaired with Lora Senechal Carney. Universities Art Association of Canada, 2010.
“Art, Memory and Rememory,” co-chaired with Lora Senechal Carney. Universities Art Association of Canada, 2008.
“Monuments in Their Spaces,” co-chaired with Lora Senechal Carney. Universities Art Association of Canada, Waterloo, 2007.
“Inter-cultural Conditioning.” Universities Art Association of Canada, Halifax, 2006.
“Packaging Canada: Tourist Architecture and the Landscape.” Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Kingston, June, 2004.
“Inter(Culturing) Conditioning.” Universities Art Association of Canada, Calgary, Alberta, 2002.
“The Connoisseur and the Politician in Eighteenth-Century Europe & Britain.” Universities Art Association of Canada, London, Ontario, 1998.
“Art and Justifications for Imperial/Territorial Expansion.” Universities Art Association of Canada, 1996.
“What Nationality is God? Church Design in Canada.” Universities Art Association of Canada Conference, 1994.