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Cynthia Colburn Faculty Profile

Cynthia Colburn

Professor of Art History
Art History Coordinator
Fine Arts Division, Seaver College
CAC 212
310.506.6615

Biography

Cynthia S. Colburn is the Blanche E. Seaver Chair of Fine Arts and Professor of Art History at Pepperdine University where she has received two awards for excellence in teaching. She earned her doctorate in Art History from UCLA. Her research focuses on the art and archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially connections between the Aegean, West Asia, and Egypt, and the role of dress and ritual performance in identity construction. She has also published on global art history. Her publications include, with Ellen Caldwell and Ella Gonzalez (eds.) Gender Violence, Art, and the Viewer: An Intervention (2024), with Maura K. Heyn (eds.), Reading a Dynamic Canvas: Adornment in the Ancient Mediterranean World, several articles, book chapters, and essays in conference proceedings, and a co-authored survey textbook, Art History: A Global View, published by Thames and Hudson. Professor Colburn has received numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Packard Humanities Institute. 

Education

  • PhD in Art History, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003
  • MA in Art History, University of California, Los Angeles, 1997
  • BA in Art History, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993

 

  • Colburn, Cynthia S. "A Proposal for Interpreting the Role of Colour Symbolism in Prepalatial Cretan Body Adornment." In Fashioned Selves, edited by Megan Cifarelli. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2019.
  • Colburn, Cynthia and Ella Gonzalez (student). "How to teach Ancient Art in the Age of #MeToo." Hyperallergic. September 5, 2018.

  • Cynthia S. Colburn. "Whose Global Art (History)? Ancient Art as Global Art." Journal of Art Historiography 15 (December 2016).

  • Chiem, Kristen and Cynthia S. Colburn. "Global Foundations for a World Art History." Journal of Visual Resources, 2015.
  • Colburn, Cynthia. "Bodily Adornment in the Early Bronze Age Aegean and Near East." In Kosmos: Jewelry, Adornment and Textiles in the Aegean Bronze Age, edited by Marie Louise-Nosch and Robert Laffineur, Liège: Université de Liège, 2012.
  • Colburn, Cynthia S. "Egyptian Gold in Prepalatial Crete? A Consideration of the Evidence," Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 3:3 (2011).
  • Colburn, Cynthia S. "Exotica and the Early Minoan Elite: Eastern Imports in Prepalatial Crete." American Journal of Archaeology 112.2 (April 2008).
  • Colburn, Cynthia S., and Maura K. Heyn, eds. Reading a Dynamic Canvas: Adornment in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.
  • Colburn, Cynthia S., and Maura K. Heyn. "Introduction: Bodily Adornment and Identity." In Reading a Dynamic Canvas: Adornment in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.
  • Colburn, Cynthia S. "Exotica and the Body in the Minoan and Mycenaean Worlds." In Readying a Dynamic Canvas: Adornment in the Ancient Mediterranean World, edited by Cynthia Colburn and Maura Heyn, 13-48. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.
  • Colburn, Cynthia. "The Symbolic Significance of Distance in the Homeric Epics and the Bronze Age Aegean." In Epos: Reconsidering Greek Epic and Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology, edited by Sarah P. Morris and Robert Laffineur, 203-211 and Plates LIII, LIV, and LV. Liege: Universite de Liege, 2007.
  • Seaver Research Council Grant, Pepperdine University, Fall 2020

     

  • Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative Grant, Spring 2018

     

  • Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative Grant, Fall 2017

     

  • Waves of Innovation Grant, Pepperdine University, for "PSA I: Thinking Outside the White Cube," 2017

     

  • Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative Grant, Pepperdine University, Spring 2017

     

  • Dean's Research Grant, Pepperdine University, Summer 2016

     

  • Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative Grant, Pepperdine University, Fall 2016

     

  • Visiting Scholar, Getty Research Institute, Summer 2016

     

  • Glazer Institute Grant for Jewish Studies, 2015

  • Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence, Pepperdine University, 2014
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Stipend, 2011
  • Visiting Scholar, Getty Research Institute, Fall 2011
  • Seaver Research Council Grant, Pepperdine University, 2011-2012
  • Seaver Fellow in Fine Arts, Pepperdine University, 2011-2012
  • Dean's Research Grant, Pepperdine University, 2011-2012
  • Archaeological Institute of America Society Outreach Grant, 2010
  • Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence, Pepperdine University, 2008
  • Seaver Research Council Grant, Pepperdine University, 2007 to 2008
  • Summer Undergraduate Research Program Grant, Pepperdine University, 2007
  • Seaver Research Council Grant, Pepperdine University, 2006 to 2007
  • Seaver Fellow in Fine Arts, Pepperdine University, 2006 to 2007
  • Dean's Research Grant, Pepperdine University, 2006
  • Dean's Research Grant, Pepperdine University, 2005
  • Harriet and Leon Pomerance Fellowship, Archaelogical Institute of America, 2002 to 2003
  • Harriet and Leon Pomerance Fellowship, Archaeological Institute of America, 2002 and 2003
  • Patricia McCarron McGinn Memorial Award, 2001 to 2002
  • History of Art Fellowship, Edward A. Dickson, September 2001 to June 2002
  • History of Art Fellowship, Edward A. Dickson, 1999 to 2000
  • Packard Humanities Institute Fellowship, American Academy of Rome, June 1998 to August 1998
  • Title VI, National Resource Fellowship, 1998-1999
  • Chuck Cuenod Memorial Fellowship in Classical Archaeology, June 1998 to August 1998
  • Graduate Curatorial Intern, Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 1996 to August 1996

Topics

  • Art and archaeology of the Mediterranean World
  • Bodily Adornment
  • Cultural interaction
  • Identity

Courses

  • ARTH 200: World Art I
  • ARTH 251: Art in the City
  • ARTH 390: Methodological Approaches to Art History
  • ARTH 422: Near Eastern Art and Archaeology
  • ARTH 424: Greek Art and Archaeology
  • ARTH 425: Roman Art and Archaeology
  • ARTH 426: Early Christian and Medieval Art
  • ARTH 428: Renaissance Art
  • ARTH 490: Senior Thesis in Art History
  • ARTH 492: Selected Topics in Art History