Two Scholars Accept Tenure Offers in the History of Art Department

The History of Art and Architecture department will welcome two new tenured professors to their ranks this fall.

Professor Jeffrey Hamburger--an expert in medieval art currently at the University of Toronto--is new to Harvard, while his soon-to-be colleague--Weston Associate Professor of the Humanities Ewa Lajer-Burcharth--was offered a rare internal tenure.

Hamburger said that he is thrilled to be joining the Faculty at Harvard.

"I'm delighted, what else should I be?" he said. "I'm looking forward to it. It's an immense opportunity. I think it also promised to be great fun."

Born in London to American parents, Hamburger received all of his academic degrees from Yale University before beginning his teaching career at Oberlin College in Ohio.

For the last three years Hamburger has taught in the Graduate Department of History of Art in Toronto. He is a recipient of numerous awards for both his research and his teaching.

According to Hamburger, teaching is one of his favorite parts of the job and he said he looks forward to working with both undergraduates and graduates.

"When you come to a place like Harvard, you assume the responsibility for teaching the next generation of graduate students who will go on to shape fields," Hamburger said. "It's what I always wanted to do. I also look forward to teaching undergraduates."

Members of the department said they are thrilled by the new additions to their permanent staff.

"I know his work very well," Loeb Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology David G. Mitten said. "He's probably the leading scholar in Western medieval art. His books on all kinds of things, especially medieval art and female monastic communities, have been groundbreaking works."

Though he will not be offering any classes next fall, Hamburger will teach two classes--one graduate and one undergraduate--in the spring. The undergraduate course will be a survey of medieval art and architecture.

Hamburger said the offer from Harvard came at the perfect time, since he was planning to leave Canada soon anyway.

"I was determined to leave," he said. "I'm just happy that it was Harvard."

Hamburger will be moving to Cambridge this fall with his wife and two daughters.

"I look forward to throwing myself into everything at Harvard," he said.

Lajer-Burcarth, on the other hand, has been in Cambridge for years, and already teaches both introductory-level classes and advanced seminars.

Her areas of expertise include 18th and 19th century European art and contemporary art, as well as feminist and critical theory.

After attending the University of Warsaw, Lajer-Bucharth received her doctorate from City University of New York.

"Ewa is a dynamo of a teacher and a scholar," Mitten said. "She has two great fields of expertise in which she is equally brilliant."

Lajer-Burcharth and all members of the search committee are out of the country and were unable to be reached for comment.