Education

BA, Art and Art History, Grinnell College
PhD, Art History, Tyler School of Art, Temple University

Areas of Specialization

Modern and Contemporary Art of the Americas
Ecocriticism and artistic discourses about nature, ecology, and technology
Exhibition and institutional histories

Brief Bio

William Schwaller is an art historian and curator whose research and teaching focus on modern and contemporary art of the Americas with a particular focus on transnational artistic discourses about nature, ecology, and 
technology. His current research focuses on the Centro de Arte y Comunicación as a catalyst for and promoter of experimental and conceptual artistic practices across the Americas from the 1960s to the 1980s. His work focuses on the early emergence of arte ecológico (environmental art) and its unique exploration of national and Latin American identity, political ecology, and conceptual and post-studio artistic practices that emphasized interdisciplinary  experimentation with science and technology.

Schwaller’s research has been supported by the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, the Center for the Humanities at Temple University, the Fulbright Scholarship Program, the Getty Research Institute, and the Terra
Foundation for American Art. He has previously taught at Temple University and Saint Joseph’s University. He is a co-director and curatorial collaborator of Big Ramp Gallery in Philadelphia. He has worked at the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Courses

ARTH 005. Modern Art in Europe and the US
ARTH010. Art and Climate Change