Regular Faculty
Amy Lyford, Chair
Arthur G. Coons Professor in the History of Ideas
B.A., Pomona College; M.A., Boston University; Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley
Amy Lyford’s research centers on twentieth-century American and European artistic practices, with a special interest in the histories of photography and sculpture.
Linda Besemer
James Irvine Distinguished Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., B.F.A., Indiana University; M.F.A., Tyler School of Art
Linda Besemer has taught painting and drawing at Occidental College since l987.
Mary Beth Heffernan
Professor, Art and Art History
B.F.A., Boston University; M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts; Fellow, Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, 1995
Mary Beth Heffernan is professor of sculpture, photography and interdisciplinary art.
Janna Ireland
Assistant Professor, Art & Art History
BFA, New York University; MFA, University of California, Los Angeles
Jose Guadalupe Sanchez III
Assistant Professor, Art & Art History
BFA, Otis College of Art and Design; MFA, University of Southern California
Yurika Wakamatsu
Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; A.M., Harvard University; Ph.D., Harvard University
Yurika Wakamatsu teaches East Asian art history, including pictorial narratives, woodblock prints, comics and anime, and gender and visual culture. Read her Oxy Story profile.
Non-Tenure Track Faculty
Kenturah Davis
Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., Occidental College; M.F.A., Yale University
Dhyandra Lawson
Visiting Instructor, Art & Art History
B.A., Occidental College; M.A., Arizona State University
Yi Liu
Visiting Instructor, Art & Art History
B.A., Sichuan University; M.A., Ohio University; Ph.D., University of California, San Diego (in progress)
Samuel Luterbacher
Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., University of Geneva, Switzerland; M.A., Courtauld Institute of Art, London; P.h.D., Yale University
Susanna Maing
Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., University of California, Berkeley; M.F.A., UCLA
Jocelyn Webb Pedersen
Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; M.A., University of Iowa, Center for the Book; M.F.A., U.C. Santa Barbara
Jocelyn Webb Pedersen is a Los Angeles based artist and fine press printer. She currently teaches courses in Typography/Letterpress Printing and Hand Printed Book Production. She holds a graduate…
Sami Siegelbaum
Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., New York University; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
Camilla Taylor
Non-Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.F.A., University of Utah; M.F.A., California State University, Long Beach
Stephen van Dyck
Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., Occidental College; M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts
David Weldzius
Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.F.A, University of Illinois, Chicago; M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts
Patricia Yossen
Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History
B.A., Escuela Provincial de Artes Visuales Juan Mantovani; M.F.A., Pratt Institute