Christina Smylitopoulos

Christina Smylitopoulos serves as a Professor of Art History within the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph, where she has earned recognition as an award-winning researcher and educator. Her scholarly work critically examines eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art and visual culture, explores the pedagogical applications of arts-based methodologies, and investigates the material culture of heavy metal music.

Her research centers on the latter half of the early modern period (mid-seventeenth century to 1830s), encompassing the European Age of Exploration, Enlightenment, Revolutionary Wars, and Napoleonic conflicts. She analyzes artistic movements including High Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism while challenging conventional stylistic frameworks through interdisciplinary approaches.

Professor Smylitopoulos has received significant professional recognition:

• Post-Secondary Art Educator of the Year (2023-24) from the Ontario Art Education Association
• UGFA Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019)
• College of Arts Teaching Excellence Award (2014)

Her research program is supported by competitive funding from:

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC Insight Grant, Insight Development Grant, Connection Grant)
• Ontario Ministry of Science, Research, and Innovation
• Lewis Walpole Library
• Huntington Library
• Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon (Library of Congress)
• Houghton Library at Harvard

Prior to her current position, she held a Postdoctoral Research Associate appointment at the Yale Centre for British Art. As an active faculty member, she mentors students in art historical scholarship while advancing innovative research at the intersection of historical art practices and contemporary cultural phenomena.