Samantha Baskind

Samantha Baskind is Distinguished Professor of Art History at Cleveland State University, specializing in Jewish American art and visual culture. She is the author of six books, most recently Moses Jacob Ezekiel: Jewish, Confederate, Expatriate Sculptor, and co-editor of The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches, the foundational volume in the field. Her scholarship, spanning more than 100 articles and reviews, has broadened perspectives about American art, often exploring artists and objects that have been overlooked or marginalized.

An engaged public scholar, Baskind’s writing has appeared in mainstream outlets such as TIME, Smithsonian Magazine, Hyperallergic, Tablet, and The Washington Post. She has held major editorial roles, serving as U.S. art editor for the 22-volume revised edition of Encylopaedia Judaica, art editor for AJS Perspectives, and currently as series editor of Dimyonot: Jews and the Cultural Imagination with Penn State University Press (18 volumes). Curatorial work includes exhibitions at the Skirball Museum in Cincinnati, American Jewish Museum in Pittsburgh, Bernard Heller Museum in New York City, and the Jerusalem Biennale.

Baskind’s scholarship has been funded by, among other sources, the American Council of Learned Societies, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and two year-long fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In 2022, Baskind was named the first distinguished professor in the history of Cleveland State University. Two years later, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research.

To learn more about her publications, curated exhibtions, and other activities, visit her website: samanthabaskind.com