Barbara Arciszewska, lecturer in the Chair of Art Theory, Director of the Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw (2016-2020), is a graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA University of London) and University of Toronto (Ph.D.). She was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Post-Graduate Fellow, a Research Fellow at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, a Visiting Scholar at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal as well as Visiting Professor at Indiana University (Bloomington).
Her work focuses on theory and practice of architecture in early modern Europe, and includes books such as Classicism and Modernity: Architectural Thought in Eighteenth-century Britain (2011), The Hanoverian Court and the Triumph of Palladio (2002), edited volumes (Articulating British Classicism: New Approaches to Eighteenth-century Architecture (co-editor, with Elizabeth McKellar), The Baroque Villa: Suburban and Country Residences c. 1600-1800 (2009), The early modern villa: Senses and perceptions versus materiality (2017), and numerous articles and book chapters (“The royal residence in Wilanów and gender constructions in early modern Poland” in: Homme bâtisseur, femme bâtisseuse: traditions et stratégies dans le monde occidental et oriental, (2013), “The Office of the King’s Works and modernization of architectural patronage in 18th century England,” in: Companion to Architecture in the Age of the Enlightenment (2017), or “Early modern conceptualizations of medieval history and their impact on residential architecture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth” in: The Quest for an Appropriate Past in Literature, Art and Architecture (2019).
International collaboration remains one of the most important dimensions of Barbara Arciszewska’s scholarly activity. Between 2014 and 2016 she was a member of the scientific committee and the leader of the Polish part of the project Antiquity and Its Alternatives. The Quest for An Appropriate Past in European Architecture c. 1500-1700. (http://appropriatepast.org/project-organisation/, financed by Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The international consortium of which Barbara Arciszewska is a member has been awarded in 2019 a prestigious European research grant within Horizon 2020 Framework. The four-year project PALAMUSTO (MSCA – ITN) https://www.palamusto.eu/, focuses on early modern court residences and aims to develop multidisciplinary approach to their comprehensive analysis and maintenance in changing cultural and environmental conditions.
Barbara Arciszewska is a member of scientific advisory board of a book series Architectura Moderna published by Brepols, as well as a member of scientific committe of a monograph series European Identities and Transcultural Exchange published by De Gruyter. She is also involved in a number of academic associations, including European Architectural History Network, od which she was a founding member. Barbara Arciszewska also remains a longstanding member of the Board of Governors of Wilanów Palace Museum.