Angela Rajagopalan

Dr. Angela Rajagopalan serves as Chair and Associate Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte). She specializes in Pre-Columbian and early colonial Mexican art and architecture, focusing on 16th-century painted manuscripts and post-conquest artistic transformations. Her work examines the cultural dynamics between Indigenous traditions and Spanish colonial influence in central Mexico.

Before joining UNC Charlotte, Dr. Rajagopalan held roles at major New York institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Americas Society Gallery, and Hispanic Society of America. Her research has been supported by prestigious awards such as the Fulbright Grant, NEH Summer Institute Award, and Mellon Fellowship.

Her major publication, Portraying the Aztec Past (2019), analyzes key codices from Mexico’s colonial transition period. Beyond academia, her curatorial experience bridges museum practice and scholarly research.