Dr Deborah Lewer
- Senior Lecturer in History of Art (History of Art)
telephone:
01413302465
email:
Deborah.Lewer@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns:
She/her/hers
R202 Level 2, History of Art, 8 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH
Research interests
Email for appointment
Research Interests
Debbie Lewer is a specialist in modern German art and also works in the field of the intersection between art and religious faith. She has published widely on modern art, culture and politics in Germany and Switzerland and is an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow. Her work centres on the German-speaking avant-garde of the period ca. 1910-1933: Zurich Dada, Dada in Germany, German Expressionism, ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’, aspects of modern architecture and the wider literary and visual culture of the Weimar Republic. She has also worked on post-1945 German art in both the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic and has translated many important source texts from German into English.
In recent years the focus of Debbie’s research has been on the complex and significant relationship between theology and art history. This originated in her studies of the Dadaist Hugo Ball and the place of belief, spirituality, religion and theological concepts in histories of modernism and the avant-garde. The broader questions around interdisciplinary approaches to Art History, Faith and Theology is the focus of her work as an Associate Tutor to the MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture at Sarum College, Salisbury and much of her current writing. She is also a regular speaker and writer for wide audiences on art and faith.
Debbie is a member of the Editorial Board of the UK’s leading journal for the discipline, Art History.She is also a long-standing writer of audioguide scripts for major international museums and collections. She is a regular speaker and occasional broadcaster for diverse public and professional audiences. She has a strong commitment to public engagement and knowledge exchange beyond academia.
Prior to joining the University of Glasgow in 2001 she held posts as a Lecturer in History of Art at University College London, at Christie’s Education, London, at Manchester University, at Manchester Metropolitan University and at the University of East Anglia. In 2007 she was a visiting lecturer at Northwestern University, Evanston USA and in 2009-10 she was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers hosted at the Institute for Art History at the University of Bonn, Germany.
Grants
- 2009-2010 12-month Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers by the major German academic research foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftfung
Supervision
Current PhD supervision:
Art in the New Democratic Paradigm: Autonomy, Technique, Participation
Building a Nation: The Construction of Modern China through the CCP’s Propaganda Images
Figuring the Atrocious: Trauma Representation in Contemporary Art Practice
- Green, Carol
Collecting Modern Art in the Nazi Germany: An Examination of the Collection of Kurt Feldhäusser 1930-1950
PhD supervision:
Debbie has supervised to completion PhDs on a range of topics, including:
Visual Representations of Working-Class Berlin 1924-1930
The Self-Portraits of Marta Astfalck-Vietz
The Cross-Cultural Rituals of 20th-Century Dance: Mary Wigman, Martha Graham, Pina Bausch
The Evolution of the Alchemical Androgyne in Symbolist and Surrealist Art
Re-Reading Surrealism through the Fairytale
Boundaries of Horror: Joan Miró and Georges Bataille, 1930-40
She has also examined a number of PhDs as both Internal and External Examiner.
Teaching
Levels 1 and 2: lectures on a wide range of topics from the 16th century to the present
Junior Honours Level 3: Courses include:
German Art in the Era of the Cold War
Architecture and Modernity 1900-1950
Art and Theology in Dialogue (with Theology and Religious Studies, forthcoming in 2018-19)
Senior Honours Level 4:
Art and Politics in Weimar Germany 1918-1933
Postgraduate MLitt Level 5:
Dada in Germany and Switzerland
Theories of the Avantgarde (Core Course for Art: Politics: Transgression: the 20th-Century Avantgardes)
Core teaching on Methodology, Portfolio and Research Methods as well as teaching on the Bauhaus for the cross-School honours course on Interwar Cultures.
External teaching: MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture at Sarum College, Salisbury, Core Course
Additional information
UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT, PUBLIC ENAGAGEMENT, EXTERNAL CONSULTANCY, AND EXAMINATION
School, College (or formerly Faculty) Level:
School Quality Officer (2012-2015)
Research Ethics Officer (2015-16)
Member of School Postgraduate Committee (2012-2015)
Faculty of Arts Advisor of Studies (2004-2009)
Member of Faculty Undergraduate Studies Committee (2003-4)
Member of Faculty Board of Studies (2002-3)
Subject Level:
Head of Subject (2016-17)
Postgraduate Research Convenor (2012-2015)
International Officer (Erasmus 2007-2016, Year Abroad International Exchange 2011-2016)
Co-convenor of MLitt Art: Politics: Transgression (since 2007)
Convenor and re-designer of J. Hons. Methodology core course (2007-8) and Portfolio (2017-18)
Level 2 convenor (2002-5)
Special Needs Facilitator / Disability Officer (2004-2009)
External Examining:
University of Durham, History of Art (undergraduate)
University of Manchester, BA in History of Art (Modern Period) (2008-2011)
University College Cork, Modern and Contemporary MA (Masters’ Degree) (2007-2010)
University of Plymouth, BA History of Art (2013-2017)
University College London: PhD External Examiner (2009)
Courtauld Institute of Art: PhD External Examiner (2017)
University of Durham: PhD External Examiner (2018)
Research Quality Review Committee: University College Cork (2008-9)
Professional memberships (past and present):
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow
Association of Art Historians (UK)
European Avantgarde and Modernism Network
Art + Christianity Enquiry
Board of Trustees, Solas Festival (2014-2016)
Verband deutscher Kunsthistoriker (Union of German Art Historians)
GSA (German Studies Association)
CAA (College Art Association, USA).
Public Engagement
Public lectures at a wide range of institutions and events including:
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
Glasgow School of Art
Goethe-Institut Glasgow
National Portrait Gallery, London
London Jewish Cultural Centre
Tate Modern, London
Royal Academy of Art, London
Barber Institute, Birmingham
Peninsula Arts, Plymouth
Block Museum, Northwestern University, USA
Gladstone’s Library
Greenbelt Festival
Iona Community
Solas Festival
Consultant and filming for the Franco-German ARTE television documentary Germany: Art of Nation in 2013. Writing and research for the audioguide to the major collection of modern Irish Art at the Merrion Hotel, Dublin in 2015.
Debbie has led several retreats and workshops on the theme of art and faith, including with Gladstone’s Library, Lee Abbey Devon, Ripon College Cuddesdon (for ordinands) and with the Iona Community.