Judith Stapleton

Judith Stapleton serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies within the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Her scholarship centers on 19th-20th century British and Irish art, examining modernism's development through cross-cultural exchange, nationalism, and geopolitical conflict.

Her academic credentials include:

• Doctorate in History of Art from Yale University
• Master’s degree from the University of Bristol (Fulbright Fellow)
• Bachelor’s degree from Franklin & Marshall College (Williamson Medalist)

Stapleton’s research interrogates the interplay between art education, display practices, and revival aesthetics, particularly in First World War contexts. Her current book project William Orpen and the Making of Modern Irish Art positions painter William Orpen (1878–1931) as pivotal to both Irish and British modernist trajectories. She extends this analysis to J.M. Synge’s artist networks and self-portraiture as vehicles for Irish modernist identity.

Her scholarly recognition includes:

• Williamson Medal (Franklin & Marshall College)
• Fulbright Fellowship (University of Bristol)

Stapleton has secured major research support from the Huntington Library/Trinity College, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, University College London, and Yale University. Her curatorial leadership spans transatlantic institutions including the Yale Center for British Art, Watts Gallery, Phillips Museum of Art, Royal West of England Academy, and Palazzo Vecchio.

She currently develops the 2025 monographic exhibition on Walter Osborne for Notre Dame’s Snite Museum of Art, building on prior co-curation of Unto This Last: Two Hundred Years of John Ruskin and An Indelible Mark: British Art of the First World War. Stapleton also coordinates academic colloquia at Yale and arranges symposia at the Paul Mellon Centre and Courtauld Institute.