Lecturer, Museum Studies
Email: fran.giani@ou.edu
Office: Bizzell Library 24A
Campus: Norman
LinkedIn Profile
Francesca Giani, PhD | LinkedIn
Dr. Francesca Giani (she/her) holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Oklahoma, Weitzenhoffer College of Fine Arts. Her doctoral research looks at art historical and architectural notions of place and habitability, and her previous graduate and undergraduate research included museums and art collecting practices as they relate to aesthetics in contemporary art. Dr. Giani has extensive art curatorial background and expertise and is an active member of the arts community in Norman, Oklahoma (Norman Arts Council board officer). More recently, Giani has developed an interest in neuroaesthetics and its applications to the museum experience. Dr. Giani provides support to OU graduate students as a certified Academic Life Coach.
Courses Commonly Taught:
For a current listing of courses please visit: https://classnav.ou.edu/
Interest Areas
Integration of art and architecture
Notions of place and habitability
Museums and communities
Curatorial practice
Neuroaesthetics
Select Research, talks, and Exhibitions
Light and Place: Robert Irwin and Others in Southern California, Dissertation, 2022. Light and Place: Robert Irwin and Others in Southern California (shareok.org)
Treasures of Tuscany: Renaissance in Arezzo, Exhibition Project Manager, Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, 2022-2023
“Images, Emotions, Imagination: The Collages of Herb Greene” and “Herb Greene: Interview by Francesca Giani,” in Mapping the Mental Continuum (Norman Arts Council, 2021), for the exhibition Herb Greene: Existential Generation (October 2021, NEA Arts Engagement in American Communities grant-funded).
Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson: Light, Perception, Participation, Guest Speaker, Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center, September 2020. Light, Perception, Participation
The Question of Beauty: Aesthetics in Postmodern Art, 2017-18 Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Curator
Immortales: Hall of Emperors of the Capitoline Museums, Rome, 2016, Guest Curator, Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art
Galileo’s World: An Artful Observation of the Cosmos, 2016, Guest Curator, Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art
Exhibition catalogue Libertad de Expresión, The Art Museum of the Americas and Cold War Politics (The University of Oklahoma, 2013) – contributing author.
Giuseppe Panza: Aesthetics in Contemporary Art, Master's Thesis, 2011. Giuseppe Panza: aesthetics in contemporary art | San Diego State University Digital Collections (sdsu.edu)