Sarah J. Scott
Professor, Visual Arts
A specialist in Ancient Near Eastern Art History, Dr. Scott teaches a range of courses covering ancient and global cultures.
718-420-4528 sarah.scott@wagner.edu Main Hall 35 (top floor) Tuesdays, 10-1 and by AppointmentDr. Scott completed her BA at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where she majored in Art History and Archaeology, and minored in Chemistry. She lived in Manhattan for two years and worked at the Metropolitan of Museum of Art in the Objects Conservation Department and then in the Curatorial Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. She received her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. In 2007 she became an Assistant Professor of Art History in the Art Department at Wagner College, and she is now a full Professor and serves as the Dean of Integrated Learning.
Dr. Scott’s area of scholarship is Ancient Near Eastern Art. She is particularly engaged with issues surrounding the intersection of art and writing in fourth and early third millennium BCE southern Mesopotamia, and how cylinder seal imagery functioned in temple economies. She uses a range of methodologies not only drawing upon Art History, but also Archaeology, Semiotics, and Assyriology (the study of ancient Near Eastern languages and scripts). Another research concentration of hers is the phenomenon of Assyrian imperial art. She investigates how narrative (visual and textual) plays a role in the administration and ideology of empire, and is currently working on a digital reconstruction of an Assyrian palace at Nineveh.
Although a specialist in Ancient Near Eastern Art History, Dr. Scott teaches a range of courses at Wagner that encompasses the broader Mediterranean and Middle Eastern visual worlds. As part of a new Art History Major, Dr. Scott offers courses in Ancient Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Islamic, Bronze Age, Greek, and Roman Art and Architecture. She employs an interdisciplinary approach in her courses, and exposes students to themes dealing with narrative, semiotics, portraiture, and propaganda. Her classes actively utilize museums in New York City as an extension of the classroom.