Faculty

Elise Smith
Email
B.A., Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
M.A., Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
(601) 974 -1432
Office: AC 323

Professor of Art History, Sanderson Chair in Arts & Sciences
Elise Smith is the art historian at Millsaps, teaching a variety of period courses as well as more specialized topics. Her dissertation examined 16th-century Northern European artist Lucas van Leyden, and recently her research interests have shifted to 19th-century Victorian painting as well as women and garden imagery in English art and literature from 1750-1950. She published a book in 2002 on the female Pre-Raphaelite artist: Evelyn Pickering De Morgan and the Allegorical Body. In 2011 Women, Literature, and the Domesticated Landscape: England's Disciples of Flora, 1780 - 1870, co-authored with Judith Page (English Department, University of Florida), was published by Cambridge University Press.

Personal Website

Sandra Murchison 
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BFA, Alfred University, Alfred, New York
M.F.A., Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
(601) 974-1431
Office: AC 321

Professor of Studio Art & Chair of the Art Department
Sandra Murchison teaches Printmaking, Painting, Drawing and contemporary special topic courses.  She will exhibit her mixed media pieces about the Mississippi Blues Trail historical markers at several solo exhibitions including Mansfield University in Pennsylvania and Nichols State University in Louisiana. She has had solo shows at such places as Delta State University, Fischer Galleries, Loyola University, Rockhurst University and the Cottonlandia Museum.  Sandra has been a visiting artist at the Appalachian State University, Lawrence University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, UTK, LSU, and UW at Madison. She has been granted several artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and most recently at Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat in Pennsylvania. She regularly exhibits her work nationally and internationally. SGC, International, a printmaking organization, has invited Sandra to serve as their Archives Liaison to the Board. In addition, Sandra curated two exchange portfolios and traveling exhibitions entitled White Elephant and Red Herring for the 2009 and 2007 SGCI conferences.  Red Herring is now in the permanent collection of the Center for Book Arts in NYC.  Sandra has taught a print and book arts workshops at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and at the Southwest School of Art and Craft.  She is represented by Fischer Galleries in Jackson, Mississippi and Guy Lyman Fine Arts in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Personal Website

Colleen Keough 
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Dip 1992 Studio Arts Diploma School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA
Cert 1993 Fifth Year Certificate School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA
BA 2007 Interdisciplinary Arts DePaul University (cum laude) Chicago, IL
MFA 2010 Electronic Integrated Arts NYSCC at Alfred University Alfred, NY
(601) 974-1430
Office: AC 322

Visiting Assistant Professor
Colleen Keough teaches Digital Arts, Sculpture and Drawing.  She has worked in a wide range of mediums, but her area of expertise is electronic media, installation, performance and time based arts. Her current work Ether and the Voice: an Electronic Media Opera crosses multiple disciplines including: sound, video, installation, sculpture, music, performance and interactive environments.

Personal Website

Abigail Susik
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B.A., Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY
M.A., Columbia University
Ph.D., Columbia University
(601) 974-1895
Office: AC 331

Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Art History, 2009-2011
Abigail Susik recently graduated from Columbia University with a doctorate in 20th Century Art History and Theory. Her dissertation, "The Vertigo of the Modern: Surrealism and the Outmoded," performed a comparative analysis of literature, art and popular culture in early French surrealism, in relation to the theory of Walter Benjamin. During her time at Millsaps, she will teach Contemporary Art History, Theory and Methodology of Art History, and the Art and Culture of Surrealism, among other courses. Last year, she published articles in the SECAC Review and Rebus and presented papers at the SECAC, MLA and CAA annual conferences. She is currently working on an article about the influence of Jules Verne upon the French surrealists for a forthcoming book on surrealism and science fiction.