Alumni Spotlight: Sean J. Kramer

Before entering college, I had planned to study art history with the rather amorphous goal of working in museums, although I had little idea at the time what either of those entailed. My undergraduate journey had several starts and stops, but I finally completed a BA in art history at KU in 2012 and started working on my MA directly from there. On completing the MA in 2014, I joined the PhD program at the University of Michigan. This move was a fairly major adjustment, as it was the first time as an adult I had lived outside Kansas. Throughout my graduate career at both universities, I pursued opportunities at the Spencer Museum of Art and later at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, where I worked in several capacities over several years. A few months after finishing my PhD, I was offered the position of Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine, where I am now. My role here combines academic engagement with curatorial research and exhibition planning. During the academic year, I coordinate with faculty across numerous departments and disciplines to bring their classes to the Museum, from art history and visual art to francophone studies, environmental studies, mathematics, and more. My curatorial projects have included an exhibition that explores the European reception of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (written here in Brunswick) and an upcoming exhibition about contemporary artistic responses to violence and catastrophe through the lenses of personhood and dignity. This is a termed position, and so I will be figuring out the next chapter before too long!

My years at KU were foundational in learning what it means to be a scholar as well as establishing lifelong friendships with my fellow graduate students and instructors. I also developed a new relationship to research, writing, even reading as a graduate student.  Among the many lessons and experiences, one I cherish most is discovering just how messy, complicated, and endlessly fascinating art can be. Through seminar discussions, term papers, and teaching, I learned how to examine works of art and their historical contexts using multiple approaches, which is something I have carried through my scholarship and curatorial projects and have always sought to convey to students. I also gained a new trust for my own ideas—not that they were always right. As museums today find themselves navigating difficult social and political terrain, the ability to analyze and write about art with a mind to its complexities and nuance has proved crucial.

I would say be curious and be flexible. The process of graduate school brings its own difficulties and uncertainties. On top of those, it is nearly impossible to know what the shape of the job market will be once you finish. I found it essential to work on projects—whether the dissertation or exhibitions—that were first and foremost interesting to me. Staying curious will enable you to feel validated with the successes and sustain you through the failures. It also pays to have a few different projects going. This is not to say you need to have “side hustles” but rather things you can work on that will give you skills and experiences to supplement your graduate work. Those projects may in turn help you see your graduate work in a new light, or they may just give you something else to focus on. In recent years, the so-called correct career paths for art historians have been simultaneously expanding and constricting, and where you end up a few years from now may look very different from where you thought you would be.