Amelia Goerlitz, Chair of Academic Programs

Amelia Goerlitz, chair of academic programs, joined the staff of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2003. Goerlitz oversees the oldest and largest residential fellowship program in the field of American art, and is  responsible for advancing scholarship through the organization of special symposia, seminars, and other forums. She serves as vice-chair of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH), a consortium of twenty-seven member institutes, and is a delegate to the Smithsonian Congress of Scholars.

Goerlitz has organized six major symposia at the museum with a particular focus on American art in a global context. She co-edited with Cynthia Mills and Lee Glazer East-West Interchanges in American Art: A Long and Tumultuous Relationship (Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2012). From 2003 to 2007, she assisted with the publication of the museum’s peer-reviewed journal, American Art. Goerlitz wrote the introduction, titled “Mapping a Transnational American Art History,” to a package of essays for the thirtieth anniversary issue of American Art (Summer 2017). 

Goerlitz earned a bachelor’s degree from Earlham College and a master’s degree in art history from the University of Texas at Austin; her thesis examined Luis Camnitzer’s print series Uruguayan Torture.