Victoria E. M. Cain
Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow of Museum StudiesPh.D. 2007 (United States history), Columbia University; B.A. 1997 (history and literature), Harvard University.
Email:
Phone: (212) 998-8397
Areas of Research/Interest
Cultural and social history of the 19th and 20th century United States, museum history and theory, history of exhibition and collecting, history of American art and visual culture, history of science and technology, landscape studies and public history.
Fellowships/Honors
Mellon / Shoah Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Visual History, University of Southern California, 2007-2009
National Academy of Education / Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2008-2009
Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2006-2007
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy Fellowship, 2005-2006
American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship, 2005-2006
Jay Fellowship, Columbia University, 2001-2005
Hofstadter Fellowship, Columbia University, 2000
Life on Display: Education, Exhibition and Museums in the Twentieth-Century United States, co-authored with Karen Rader, under contract with the University of Chicago Press.
Republication of "From natural history to science: Display and the transformation of American museums of science and nature," co-authored with Karen Rader, chapter in Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, 2nd edition, ed. Bettina Carbonell (New York: Wiley-Blackwell), 2012.
"Attraction, Attention, and Desire: Consumer Culture as Pedagogical Paradigm in Museums in the United States, 1900-1930," Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education, June 20, 2012, DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2012.667422.
"The Craftsmanship Aesthetic: Showing Making at the American Museum of Natural History, 1910-45," The Journal of Modern Craft, v. 5, no. 1, March 2012, pp. 25-50
"Professor Carter's Cabin: Amateur Collectors and Natural History Museums," Common-place, vol. 12, no. 2, January 2012.
"'An Indirect Influence Upon Industry: Rockefeller Philanthropies and the Development of Educational Film in the United States, 1935-53," chapter in Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States, ed. Marsha Orgeron, Devin Orgeron and Dan Streible (New York: Oxford University Press), 2011.
"The Art of Authority: Exhibits, Exhibit Makers and the Contest for Scientific Status at the American Museum of Natural History, 1920-1940," Science in Context, special issue on "Lay Observation in the Life Sciences," vol. 24, issue 2, April 2011, pp. 215-238.
"'The Direct Medium of the Vision': Visual Education, Virtual Witnessing and the American Museum of Natural History, 1890-1923," Journal of Visual Culture, special issue on "Capturing the Moment: Visual Evidence and Eyewitnessing," v. 10, no. 3, December 2010.
"Specimens, Stereopticons and Science Education: The Evolution of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences," Annals of Iowa, v. 68, no. 1, Winter 2009, pp. 1-35.
"Exhibitionary Complexity: Reconsidering Museums' Cultural Authority," American Quarterly, v. 60, no. 4, December 2008, pp. 1143-1153.
"Albert Bickmore: Brief Life of a Museum Impresario, 1839-1914," Harvard Magazine, September 2008, pp. 38-39.
"From natural history to science: Display and the transformation of American museums of science and nature," co-authored with Karen Rader, museum + society, vol. 6, issue 2, July 2008, pp. 152-171.
"'Mind' Games," exhibition review for Museum News, May/June 2008.
Courses:
History and Theory of Museums (MSMS-GA 1500)
Historic Sites, Cultural Landscapes and the Politics of Preservation (MSMS-GA 2223)
Research Seminar (MSMS-GA 3991)
