In Memoriam: Former Provost and Professor Emerita Susan L. Smith

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of dear friend and valued colleague, Provost and Professor Emerita Susan L. Smith. Professor Smith. Professor Smith died on April 5 after a long battle with cancer.

Smith is best known for her pioneering work in feminist art history and the excellence of her administrative contributions to UC San Diego, both as a chair of the Department of Visual Arts and Provost of John Muir College.

Smith was among the first art historians to study medieval art from a feminist perspective. Her groundbreaking dissertation “’To Women's Wiles I Fell’: The Power of Women ‘Topos’ and the Development of Medieval Secular Art" (University of Pennsylvania, 1978) was one of the most widely cited and influential art history dissertations of the period and became a standard foundational text in the then newly established field of women’s studies.

Smith’s writing is distinguished by its intelligent and sensitive attention to images, not only in painting, sculpture and manuscript illustration, but also on textiles, mirrors, jewelry, trinket boxes and prints, genres then all too often considered on the periphery of art.

She received a bachelor’s degree with honors in 1968 from Swarthmore College, where she studied history and philosophy and then pursued a year of graduate work in Medieval Studies at Yale University. These were the years that the first women’s studies programs were established in the United States, so when Smith completed her master’s (1971) and PhD degrees in art history (1978) at the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on topics of importance to this emerging field.

As a Visual Arts faculty member, Smith developed the department’s first curriculum in medieval art history. An undergraduate student specializing in medieval art whom she taught and mentored at this time was Elina Gertsman, now a chaired professor of art history and director of graduate studies at Case Western Reserve and author of two award-winning books on medieval art.

As Department of Visual Arts chair, she brought to fruition the department’s long stated objective of instituting a PhD program in Art History, Theory and Criticism alongside its renowned MFA program. The PhD program quickly rose to prominence due in no small part to the productive environment of collaboration between artists and scholars.

As provost, Smith had no less profound an impact on John Muir College and the UC San Diego campus. She ensured the survival of the Modernist complex of buildings at Muir College by securing a major Campus Heritage Grant from the Getty Foundation, which initiated the first architectural preservation of these exemplary buildings and drew up plans for their continued maintenance and use.

Smith was a strong advocate for students, and as provost collaborated with the Office of Housing, Dining and Hospitality on the completion of Tamarack Apartments, the first building to be constructed at Muir College since the early 1970s, to enhance the experience of students living there. For university administration, she oversaw the consolidation of the six college business offices, and the establishment of a new campus-wide writing center, which opened in 2011.

In the spirit of college namesake John Muir, she established programs in support of local, national and global efforts to preserve the natural environment, and to promote environmental sustainability in energy and water use, waste disposal, food production and other practices. Prominent among these are the Muir Environmental Fellows awards, which each year honors UC San Diego faculty, staff and alumni for work in the cause of sustainability and environmental preservation.

In addition to these professional achievements, Smith will long be remembered for the gracious warmth, intelligence, hospitality and compassion that she displayed to colleagues and friends. She was a gourmet cook and avid collector of cookbooks whose Solana Beach home was a site for many lovely dinners and receptions for new faculty and friends. Smith will be sorely missed by the many people whose lives she touched.

She is survived by her husband Visual Arts Professor Emeritus Sheldon Nodelman and step-son Daniel Terdimann.

For more information about Professor Smith’s life and career, read the tribute article on the Department of Visual Arts website.

Pradeep K. Khosla
Chancellor

Elizabeth H. Simmons
Executive Vice Chancellor

Cristina Della Coletta
Dean, Division of Arts and Humanities

Amy Adler
Chair, Department of Visual Arts