Suzanne Scanlan’s research centers on women as artists, patrons and collectors from the Renaissance through the modern period. Since 2010, Scanlan has been on the faculty of the Rhode Island School of Design where she teaches courses on the art, architecture and material culture of early modern Europe. She has developed several collaborative courses with studio faculty and museum curators, from the role of the artist on the Grand Tour to the History of Drawing. Her most recent work is a book entitled Esther Pressoir: A Modern Woman's Painter, published by Lund Humphries in 2024. Previous works include Divine and Demonic Imagery at Tor de’Specchi, 1400-1500: Religious Women and Art in Fifteenth-Century Rome (Amsterdam University Press, 2018). In spring 2017, her co-authored article “Death Did Not Become Her: Unconventional Women and the Problem of Female Commemoration in Early Modern Rome” won the prize for Best Article from Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal. From September 2023-August, 2024, Scanlan co-curated exhibitions of works by artist Esther Pressoir for the RISD Museum and the Providence Athenaeum. She also serves as faculty for the Providence Clemente Veterans Initiative.

Books:

• Esther Pressoir: A Modern Woman’s Painter. Lund Humphries, 2024.
• Divine and Demonic Imagery at Tor de’Specchi, 1400-1500: Religious Women and Art in Fifteenth-Century Rome . Amsterdam University Press, 2018.