Barbara Arciszewska - Biography#

Barbara Arciszewska, lecturer in the Chair of Art Theory, Director of the Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw (2016 - 2020), is a graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA) and University of Toronto (Ph.D.). She was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Post-Graduate Fellow, a Research Fellow at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, a Visiting Scholar at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal as well as a Visiting Professor at Indiana University (Bloomington).

Her work focuses on theory and practice of architecture in early modern Europe, and includes books such as Architecture and planning of university buildings from the middle ages to the mid- 19th century (2021 in Polish), Classicism and Modernity: Architectural Thought in Eighteenth-century Britain (2011), edited volumes (Articulating British Classicism: New Approaches to Eighteenth-century Architecture (with Elizabeth McKellar), The early modern villa: Senses and perceptions versus materiality (2017), and numerous articles and book chapters (“The royal residence in Wilanów and gender constructions in early modern Poland” in: Homme bâtisseur, femme bâtisseuse (2013), “The Office of the King’s Works and modernization of architectural patronage in 18th century England,” in: Companion to Architecture in the Age of the Enlightenment (2017), or “Religious architecture in early modern Poland, 1500-1800” in: Cambridge Guide to the Architecture of Christianity (2023). Her research has been also disseminated at numerous international conferences and invited lectures, including series of seminars at the University College Dublin.

Between 2014 and 2016 Barbara Arciszewska was a member of the team executing project Antiquity and Its Alternatives. The Quest for An Appropriate Past in European Architecture c. 1500-1700, financed by Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The international consortium of which Barbara Arciszewska is a member has been awarded in 2019 a prestigious European research grant within Horizon 2020 Framework. The PALAMUSTO project focuses on early modern court residences and aims to develop multidisciplinary approach to their comprehensive analysis and maintenance in changing cultural and environmental conditions.

Barbara Arciszewska has been involved in a number of academic associations, including Society of Architectural Historians and European Architectural History Network, as well as scientific advisory boards, including those overseeing book series Architectura Moderna published by Brepols and European Identities and Transcultural Exchange, published by DeGruyter. She has also been a reviewer for major publishing houses (Routledge, Ashgate), professional journals (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Architectural History) and grant agencies (European Research Council, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. Barbara Arciszewska also remains a longstanding member of the Board of Governors of Wilanów Palace Museum and is currently the Chair of this Board.