Dr. Sarah D Beetham

Dr. Sarah Beetham is an assistant professor of art history at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, specializing in American art and particularly the monuments erected to citizen soldiers after the Civil War. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the University of Delaware and a B.A. in art history and English from Rutgers University. Her current book project, Monumental Crisis: Accident, Vandalism, and the Civil War Citizen Soldier, focuses on the ways in which post-Civil War soldier monuments have served as flashpoints for heated discussion of American life and culture in the 150 years since the end of the war. Dr. Beetham has published work on Civil War monuments and art history pedagogy in Public Art Dialogue, Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, Nierika: Revista de Estudios de Arte, and Common-Place. She has been interviewed regarding her work on Civil War monuments and the current debate over the future of Confederate monuments in several outlets, including the Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Architectural Digest, and Mic.

Sub-specialties: American art, art of the Civil War, Civil War monuments, Confederate monuments, vandalism and destruction of monuments, art history pedagogy.