Giulia Paoletti

Associate Professor, Art History


Affiliated Faculty Member of the Department of African American and African Studies / Woodson Institute (2023-26), Affiliated Faculty Member of the French Department

Giulia Paoletti is a historian and curator of art and photography with a focus on nineteenth and twentieth century African art. Her book Portrait and Place: Photography in Senegal, 1840-1960 (Princeton University Press, 2024) offers the first extended study of photography in one of Africa’s epicenters of modernity. The book was awarded the 2024 Photography Network Book Award. 

Her work has appeared in edited volumes and journals including Art History, Cahiers d'études africaines, the Metropolitan Museum Journal, Art in Translation, Journal of African History, Troubles dans les collections and African Arts and MoMA Post.     

Support for her research and writing include awards and fellowships from American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)/Getty; The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA); the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.      

She has co-curated three exhibitions on historical and contemporary photography from Africa at the Metropolitan Museum, the Wallach Gallery and Dak’art Biennial OFF 2018.  

She has taught and lectured at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, the University of Kansas, the Barnes Foundation, and the University of Bologna. At UVA, Paoletti teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on Africa’s histories of photography, modern and contemporary art, classical arts and exhibition histories.

Currently, with Dr. Sandrine Colard, she is working on her second research project on the relation between photography and textile. 

She is the co-director of the ​The Siren Project

A full list of publications is available here: https://virginia.academia.edu/GiuliaPaoletti.