Erika Doss

Erika Doss is a Professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in modern and contemporary American visual culture. Her research examines the intersections of art, public memory, and emotion, with a focus on how monuments and memorials shape national identity and cultural discourse.

Her primary research interests include 20th/21st-century American art, public art installations, the socio-political role of monuments and memorials, and the study of cultural affect in visual media. Doss employs interdisciplinary approaches drawing from art history, cultural studies, and memory theory to analyze how public art influences democratic engagement and collective feeling.

Doss has authored influential books exploring American art movements, memorial practices, and cultural phenomena. Her publications consistently address themes of public emotion, artistic modernism, and the negotiation of national narratives through visual culture. Recent works investigate contemporary monument controversies and the spiritual dimensions of American modernism.

She has received significant recognition including the Charles C. Eldredge Prize and multiple Fulbright Awards. Fellowships include residencies at:

• Stanford Humanities Center
• Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art