Jillian Lerner

Jillian Lerner is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory at the University of British Columbia (UBC), within the Faculty of Arts. She specializes in 19th-century visual culture, photography, and critical pedagogy. She holds a PhD from Columbia University (2006) and a BA from UBC (1998).

Dr. Lerner’s research focuses on the history of photography, print media, and technologies of seeing. She authored two books: Graphic Culture: Illustration and Artistic Enterprise in Paris, 1830-1848 (2018) and Experimental Self-Portraits in Early French Photography (2021). Her work has been published in journals such as Grey Room, History of Photography, and The Art Bulletin.

Teaching courses include ARTH 227: What is Modern Art? and ARTH 480: Visual and Digital Media Theory. She is Chair of the Art History Undergraduate Committee and affiliated with the Bachelor of Media Studies Program. Her current projects explore social justice storytelling and pedagogies of relational accountability in undergraduate education.

Lerner is a faculty researcher in the Critical Image Forum and emphasizes ethical teaching on unceded Musqueam territory. She advises undergraduate students but does not supervise graduate research.