Keren Hammerschlag

Keren Hammerschlag is a Senior Lecturer and Convenor of the Bachelor of Art History and Curatorship (Honours) at the Centre for Art History & Art Theory, School of Art & Design, Australian National University (ANU), within the College of Arts & Social Sciences. She is also a member of the steering committee for the ANU Health Humanities Network. Previously, she taught at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (2013-2018) and was a Wellcome Postdoctoral Research Fellow at King's College London (2010-2013).

Her educational background includes:

• BArtTH Hons. from the University of New South Wales (UNSW)
• MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art
• PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London (2010)

Hammerschlag's research focuses on nineteenth-century British art and visual culture, particularly examining the intersections between art and medicine during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Her work critically investigates representations of race, gender, and the body in visual culture from 1850-1914. She has made significant contributions to the emerging field of Visual Medical Humanities, exploring how medical knowledge and practices influenced artistic production and vice versa. Her research often addresses uncomfortable historical truths about race, whiteness, and scientific racism as represented in art and anatomical illustration.

Her recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on racial representation in Victorian visual culture, particularly examining how scientific racism permeated artistic production. She has published extensively on the representation of Jewish identity in Victorian history painting, racial imagery in anatomical atlases, and the visual culture of cosmetics and skin whitening. Her work shows a methodological approach that bridges art history with medical humanities, gender studies, and critical race theory, revealing how visual culture both reflected and shaped contemporary understandings of race, medicine, and the body.

Her notable awards include:

• ANU Futures Scheme Award (2021-2025) to develop Visual Medical Humanities at ANU
• Wellcome Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Humanities and Health at King's College London (2010-2013)

Hammerschlag serves as a supervisor for research students and has been instrumental in developing academic programs, including co-founding Georgetown University's Disability Studies Minor. Her current ANU Futures Scheme project represents a significant grant supporting her interdisciplinary work at the intersection of art history and medical humanities. She is actively involved in editorial work as the Nineteenth-Century Field Editor for caa.reviews and on the Editorial Board of Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide.

Through her ANU Futures Scheme project, Hammerschlag is developing the Visual Medical Humanities initiative at ANU, which brings together scholars from art history, medical humanities, and related fields to explore the visual dimensions of medical knowledge and practice. This work builds on her previous leadership in establishing Georgetown's Disability Studies Minor and her ongoing participation in the ANU Health Humanities Network.