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Francesca Giani

Francesca Giani

Francesca Giani.

Lecturer, Museum Studies

Email: fran.giani@ou.edu
Office: Bizzell Library 24A
Campus: Norman

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:

  • MST 5133 999 The History and Architecture of Museums
  • MST 5173 999 Museums, Cultures, Communities
  • MST 5313 991 Museum Education
  • MST 5190 999 Museum Project

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)