BA, Oberlin College. MA, Kingston University, UK. PhD (in progress), Yale University. Specializes in modern and contemporary art in America and Europe, with particular interests in media and technology, ecology and the environment, and critical theory. Herrmann's publications have appeared or are forthcoming in October, Art Journal, and MoMA Magazine, and his dissertation focuses on the theme of biological life in contemporary art. He previously worked at The Museum of Modern Art in New York as a research fellow. SLC, 2025–
Undergraduate Courses 2024-2025
Art History
History of Postwar and Contemporary Art
Open, Small Lecture—Spring
ARTH 2029
This course follows the transition from late modernist art after World War II to the heterogeneous practices of contemporary art in the 21st century. Attention will be paid to formative artistic movements—such as Pop, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Performance, and Institutional Critique—as well as to how marginalized artists continually challenged the hegemony of the mainstream artworld with political activism along the lines of race, gender, sexuality, and class. The final section of the course will examine current trends, including postcolonial art, digital technologies, Indigenous art, and ecological art in an era of climate change. The course will include a field trip to a New York City museum, where students will select artworks for their own research papers. Other assignments will include visual analysis, a comparative research paper, and a group presentation. Alternative proposals for final projects, such as exhibition designs, are also welcome. One weekly lecture on the history and theory of each topic will prepare students for weekly group conferences involving close reading of primary and secondary sources, visual analysis of artworks, and guided discussion.