Barbara Johnston

Art History
BFA - Virginia Commonwealth University
BA - Virginia Commonwealth University
MA - Virginia Commonwealth University
Ph.D. - Florida State University
e-mail: johnston_barbara@colstate.edu
office: One Arsenal Place, Room 230
phone: 706-507-8314

Barbara J. Johnston is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Columbus State University. She received her Ph.D. from Florida State University and holds a Master’s degree in Art History/Museum Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she also earned a BA in Art History and a BFA in Communication Arts and Design. Dr. Johnston has held faculty positions at Florida State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and most recently at the College of William and Mary where she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Renaissance and Baroque Art History. She has taught abroad on several occasions, including a semester at FSU’s London Study Center. In addition to her academic positions, Dr. Johnston was on the faculty at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and was a lecturer for the VMFA’s Paul Mellon Arts in Education program. She is an active member of several professional organizations, including the College Art Association, the Renaissance Society of America, the Southeastern College Art Conference, the Sixteenth Century Studies Society, and Historians of Netherlandish Art. Dr. Johnston has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Appleton Teaching Fellowship and the Penelope Mason Dissertation Fellowship at Florida State University and a research grant from the Renaissance Society of America.

Dr. Johnston teaches a variety of classes at CSU, but specializes in European art and architecture of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Previous publications include Baroque Prints: Selections from the Collection of Dorothy and William Walmsley, a catalogue for an exhibition she co-curated for the Florida State University Museum of Art, and “Rubens's Deianira and the Fury: A New Interpretation Based on Seneca's Hercules Oetaeus,” which was published in Athanor. Her current research, an outgrowth of her dissertation, centers on the artistic, religious, and political complexities inherent in the Vie de la Magdalene, a manuscript depicting the life of Mary Magdalene that was created for Louise of Savoy, mother of the French king Francis I. At present, Dr. Johnston is preparing her dissertation for publication as a book, as well as an essay to be included in an anthology focusing on Mary Magdalene in the visual arts.

For an academic history view resume (pdf)