معرفی
Joseph Leo Koerner serves as the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, where he also chairs the Department of History of Art and Architecture and holds a professorship in Germanic Languages and Literatures. As a Senior Fellow of Harvard's Society of Fellows, he maintains cross-disciplinary connections across the university. His institutional affiliations extend to the American Academy in Berlin, where he serves as a Trustee, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where he is a Life Trustee.
Koerner's scholarly focus spans from the late Middle Ages to the present, with particular expertise in Northern Renaissance art, Dutch seventeenth-century painting, European Romanticism, and German and Austrian Modernism. His research interests include iconoclasm, landscape painting, self-portraiture, visual evidence, monument studies, and most recently, art created in states of siege or exception. His work often bridges art history with personal history, particularly regarding his Viennese Jewish heritage and the Holocaust experiences of his family.
His scholarly output reveals a trajectory from early work on Renaissance art through Romantic landscape painting to contemporary concerns with trauma and memory. Recent publications like Art in a State of Siege (2025) demonstrate his ongoing engagement with how art functions during periods of crisis, examining works by Bosch, Max Beckmann, and William Kentridge. His film work, particularly The Burning Child (2019), extends these scholarly interests into documentary form, exploring the dream and nightmare of homemaking in Vienna from 1900 to 1938.
- Jan Mitchell Prize for the History of Art (1992)
- Humboldt Fellowship (1991-2)
- Guggenheim Fellowship (2006-7)
- Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award (2009)
- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1995)
- Member of the American Philosophical Society (since 2008)
Koerner's teaching spans object-based courses at the Harvard Art Museums to thematic explorations of concepts like the enemy, witchcraft imagery, and monuments. His mentorship extends beyond formal students to collaborators on film projects and exhibitions. His current research projects include "Vienna Interior," examining the apartment as a unit of homemaking in Vienna from 1867 to 1942, and continued work on art in states of siege. Koerner has curated numerous exhibitions at Harvard, the Austrian National Gallery, and the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, often collaborating with scholars like Bruno Latour on interdisciplinary projects that bridge art history with anthropology and science studies.
