Elizabeth Otto

Elizabeth Otto is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), affiliated with the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. She serves as Director of the Humanities Institute, a role emphasizing interdisciplinary scholarship. Her research focuses on 19th- to 21st-century European and American art, with specialties in gender studies, photography, film, and media culture. Otto is renowned for her work on the Bauhaus, particularly its intersections with gender, queer identities, and Nazi-era cultural politics.

Education includes a PhD in Art History and a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies from the University of Michigan, an MA from Queen's University (Canada), and a BA from Oberlin College.

Her research explores underrepresented figures in Bauhaus history, such as women artists, and examines the school's legacy during and after National Socialism. Recent projects include co-curating the exhibition Bauhaus and National Socialism and a forthcoming book analyzing Bauhaus members' lives under Nazism. She has organized conferences like the 2023 Bauhaus and National Socialism symposium and delivered lectures on topics like Bauhaus Designers and the Holocaust.

Publications include Haunted Bauhaus (2019), winner of the Peter C. Rollins Book Prize, and Bauhaus Women: A Global Perspective (2019). She has held prestigious fellowships at institutions like the Getty Research Institute and the National Humanities Center. Current projects involve art therapy practices by Bauhaus alumni and the queer aesthetics of ringl+pit.

Grants and awards span residencies at the Cape Cod Modern House Trust and fellowships from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Otto advises graduate students through UB’s Gender Institute and collaborates internationally on exhibitions and academic initiatives.