Lise Kjaer received her Ph.D. in Art History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York in 2008. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in twentieth century and contemporary art, art history survey and MFA seminars. Her area of research includes issues of identity in modern and contemporary art, and global art history. Kjaer’s dissertation Awakening the Spiritual: James Turrell and Quakerism considered the artist’s light installations in view of his renewed interest in Quakerism, Quaker tenets, history and tradition. Current research involves an anthology (co-edited with Dr. Will Wroth) on the scholar Ananda K. Coomaraswamy’s influence on twentieth century art, tracing the impact of the writer and curator’s publications, exhibitions and scholarly involvement with South Asian art on twentieth century American, Asian and European art and art history. Kjaer has previously received an MFA with Distinction from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland in 1992. She has exhibited internationally in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland and the United States, and been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, Bamse Kragh-Jacobsen’s Award, and been a fellow of NIFCA, a Nordic artist in residency program in Helsinki, Finland; The Danish Art Council's Residency at Hirsholmen; TSKW, The Studios of Key West; The Danish Visual Artists' Berlin Residency Program; and Jeckels Hotel AiR, Denmark. Along with her scholarly work in art history, Kjaer continues her art practice exhibiting sculptures and installation pieces that are often time-based, ephemeral and participatory inviting the viewer to become a part of the work.