Memorable is the word that has been used to describe Lauren Weingarden again and again – by colleagues, administrators, collaborators, and students.
To have met her, it is no surprise. With signature red hair – as vivid as a Crayola crayon – thick glasses and colorful clothing, Dr. Weingarden gets your attention in a crowd. “I do stand out. [Teaching] is a performance. And I want to give that – my best – to my students every day.”
Since 1983, Weingarden has done just that for her students at Florida State University. Now, after thirty-seven years, Dr. Lauren Weingarden is retiring with a new title, Professor Emerita.
Weingarden grew up wandering the halls of the Detroit Institute of Art and visiting her father’s general contracting office, where she was drawn to his blueprints.
“While studying for my Master’s degree (University of Toronto), I had a seminar with the Frank Lloyd Wright specialist, which guided me to architecture, but I wanted to be multidisciplinary. As a doctoral student at University of Chicago, I studied under Richard Schiff, a modernist. But I never considered myself an architectural historian; I studied Louis Sullivan as a poet artist!”
Weingarden went on to author of several books and articles on Sullivan, including Louis H. Sullivan and a 19th–Century Poetics of Naturalized Architecture (2009).
Dr. Weingarden has also authored numerous articles on nineteenth-century French modernity, as defined by Charles Baudelaire and represented by Edouard Manet. She is currently completing a book based on this research titled, A Neuroarthistory of the Painters of Modern Life: Embodying Baudelairean Modernity (Routledge). She has also extended a Baudelairean trajectory to installation art. In 2011-12 she received a Fulbright Core Scholar grant for her project, “Trajectories of Baudelairean Modernity: Brazil’s Inhotim in Context,” the topic of the seminar she concurrently taught at the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
Weingarden’s research grants and fellowships include the Dedalus Foundation Senior Research Fellowship for studies in modernism, visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, and the J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship in Art History and the Humanities, held at the University of Michigan. In 2010 she held the IEAT/FUNDEP Chair in Humanities, Letters and Arts, at the Institute for Advanced Transdisciplinary Studies, Federal University of Minas Gerais, in recognition of her expertise in Word & Image Studies. Since 1990 Prof. Weingarden has served on the Advisory Board of the International Association of Word & Image Studies.
Despite these accolades, when first asked about her greatest accomplishments, Weingarten instead recounts stories about her students. From the biology student who blossomed in an introductory art history course in London to the thirteen doctoral candidates whose committees she chaired; her pride is clearly measured by their accomplishments.
I want [my students] to have fun learning! I want to share my passion and love for art history and the thrill of going to the museums. I always tell the students, “I want to teach you enough that, when you go to the museum with your family or friends, people are going to stand around listening to YOU because YOU know how to describe that painting!”
Her students have echoed admiration. One story from alum Aggie Johnson (BS 2000) particularly stands out:
When I was a senior at FSU, and [my son] Jordan was just a baby, [my husband] John and I had a class every Tuesday that overlapped, mandatory for both of us. Thankfully we had a sitter…until one Tuesday she became sick – like super sick. John and I both had to be in class; he had an exam and I had mandatory attendance that impacted my grade.
Scared, not sure what to do, I put Jordan in his stroller and we headed to class at the College of Fine Arts with Dr. Weingarden, who – while I deeply respected and admired – I feared getting on her bad side. She knew I was a mom and working hard to graduate on time and as I walked in with Jordan…so anxious about what she would say..she just looked at me, looked at the stroller and simply said to the rest of the class “Everyone, we have a new student today, and he will be my TA, so please make room for him at the table.” Tears filled my eyes, and relief washed over me. Jordan was actually so well behaved she told me that Ginna could “be sick anytime”.
It is professors like her that have profound impacts on their students with [small] acts of understanding.
Of course, there are a few accomplishments of her own which she considers highlights, particularly because of the experiences they afforded.
My academic life has been international! But I had advantages here [at FSU] that I could have had nowhere else – I could teach what I wanted to teach, be a part of growing the Study Abroad programs, and take advantage of grants and travel.
Receiving the Dedalus Foundation Senior Research Fellowship sent her to Paris for almost a year, a time in her life she “felt like I owned Paris.” Weingarden would go on to teach art history and museum studies in both Paris and London, paving the way for the Paris Art & Culture Program.
Of her 2012 Fulbright Fellowship in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, she says “I fell in love with the culture. It was amazing to be somewhere everyone showed appreciation for one another with hugs and kisses!” Read more about Weingarden’s Fulbright experience here. [link to https://cfa.fsu.edu/lauren-weingarden-fulbright-distinguished-chair/]
Even as she cites organizing the 2019 19th-Century French Studies Colloquium in Sarasota, Florida with Prof. Aimée Boutin (FSU Modern Languages), she focuses on the experience of it. “I have been on many conference planning committees, but never acted as the host as we did with this. It was so rewarding to have the participants [253 attendees from 13 countries] respond with such enthusiasm. I mean – we had fun!” Read more about the conference here. [link to https://cfa.fsu.edu/19c/]
With such passion in her work and associations, Weingarden has no plans to sit still in retirement. She recently joined the board of the Holocaust Education Resource Council and will be working on her book, A Neuroarthistory of the Painters of Modern Life: Embodying Baudelairean Modernity.
The College of Fine Arts and especially the Department of Art History will announce a celebration of Weingarden’s retirement Professor Emerita title at a future date. Until then, Weingarden is approaching her retirement in much the same way she has every other day – with plans and pizazz and (when travel is safe again) a little more Paris.