Janet Catherine Berlo

Janet Catherine Berlo is an American art historian and academic, noted for her publications and research into the visual arts heritage of Native American and pre-Columbian cultures. She has also published and lectured on gender studies, the representation and participation of women in indigenous and visual arts, the history of graphic arts since the mid-19th century, indigenous textile arts, and American quilting history and traditions. In the early portion of her academic career Berlo made notable contributions towards the understanding of the art and iconography of Mesoamerica, in particular that of the Classic-period Teotihuacan civilization. From 2003 to 2021, Berlo held the position of Professor of Art History and Visual and Cultural Studies at the Department of Art and Art History, University of Rochester, New York. She is currently Professor Emerita.

Education and academic career Berlo attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she obtained a B.A. summa cum laude in 1974. Her postgraduate studies were undertaken at Yale, where she completed a master's degree in art history in 1976, and her Ph.D. in the same subject area was awarded in 1980.

After a semester as an instructor at Yale while completing her PhD, in the 1979–80 academic year Berlo became an assistant professor in the Art Department at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Excepting some periods of leave and visiting appointments, Berlo remained associated with the UMSL for the next 17 years, reaching associate professor in 1985 and a full professorship in 1990.

Publications

1998, and later reprints. A second edition was published by Oxford University Press in 2014: