BIO Linda Stratford received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, in History, with emphasis on Art and Society in France. Before her Ph.D. she completed an undergraduate Art degree at Vanderbilt University and spent a year studying Art History in France. She makes regular research trips to France and served as founding director of Asbury’s Paris Semester 2014 to 2024. She long been interested in the impact of identity upon the reception of art movements; an early focus was the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion impacting the reception of expressionist abstraction in post-World War II France. Subsequently, assisted by a grant appointment as a Lilly Scholar at Asbury, she began to research on theological foundations of artistic expression, co-founding The Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA) and joining other colleagues to critique the notion of modern and contemporary art as autonomous from religious purposes. Both of these realms of research focus on ways in which ideological constructs not only arise from but can themselves confine or expand historical reception and narratives. View Dr. Stratford’s C.V. Here Education Ph.D., State University of New York, Stony Brook M.A., Florida Atlantic University B.S., Vanderbilt University Courses Offered • HIS 341 – Seminar in French History/taught in Paris • ART 252 – Art 1500 to the Present/taught in Paris and KY • ART 360 – Aesthetics and Art Theory • ART 100 – Understanding Art • ART 265 – Art and the Search for Meaning (honors course) Sample Lectures “Reconsidering Religion in Modern and Contemporary Art: Methods and Approaches” session co-chair, Annual Meeting of the College Art Association. New York. February 2025. https://www.scholarschristianityhistoryart.org/past-events “Getting Political: Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa” Lander University guest lecturer March 28, 2025 “The Artist as Truth Teller” conference co-chair, Institut Catholique, Paris June 27, 2022. https://www.scholarschristianityhistoryart.org/past-events “Barnett Newman’s Stations of the Cross Reconsidered” Asbury University, September 2020; subsequent chapter in God in the Modern Wing (IVP, 2021) “Modernist Prodigals: Aesthetic Aftermaths of Religious Conversion” panel discussant, Annual Meeting of the College Art Association. New York. February 2019. “Exploring Theological Dimensions of the Aesthetic Object” presentation at The Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA), The Union League Club, New York, February 14, 2017 “Abstract Painting and Tradition Française” conference presentation, Jeune France 1930-1959, Maison Française, Oxford University, June 2016 Sample Publications (2025) “Expressionist Abstraction and the Tradition Française” H-France Salon Volume 17, Issue 1, no. 6, 2025 (2025) “The Pull of Imagery. The Art of Steve Prince” Creo Quill August 8, 2025. https://thecreoquill.substack.com/p/the-pull-of-imagery (2024) “Visual Arts: Realism and Naturalism” in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion co-authored with William Dyrness. Oxford University Press, 2024 online; hard copy version “Realism and Naturalism in Religious Visual Arts” 2025 (2023) “Exploring Theological Dimensions of the Work of Art“in Religion and Contemporary Art. A Curious Accord. Ronald Bernier and Rachel Hostetter Smith, eds., Routledge, 2023 (2021) ““Theological Imagination: The Paintings of Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman” chapter in God in the Modern Wing, Cameron J. Anderson and G. Walter Hansen, eds., InterVarsity Press, 2021 (2019) “Alfred Manessier and the Path to Renewal” exhibit essay accompanying Bowden Collection traveling exhibit Alfred Manessier: Composer in Colors. (2017) Vocation and the Common Good Working Group, a project of The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia. Lead writer for funded 3-year study and report on the vocational challenges posted to the sphere of visual art in late modernity. (2017) “Art and Christian Pilgrimage: A Response” chapter in Contemporary Art and the Church: A Conversation Between Two Worlds, W. David O Taylor and Taylor Worley, eds., IVP Academic, 2017. (2014) “Carnal Beauties: The Art of Allison Luce” Image winter/spring 2014, no. 80 (2014) ReVisioning: Methodological Studies of Christianity in the History of Art. Cascade. A critical examination of scholarly methodologies applied to the study of Christian subjects, themes and contexts in art. Co-edited with James Romaine. (2013) “Cadillacs, Jet Planes and H-bombs: American Art in France Following the Liberation” presentation October 2013 at the annual conference of The Western Society for French History, Atlanta. Awarded the Amy Millstone Prize for best interdisciplinary paper presented at the annual conference. (2012) “Spiritually Charged Visual Strategy: Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm” in Art as Spiritual Perception. Crossway. (2007) “French Classicism in the 1950’s” in Salon America (2006) “Challenge to a National School at Risk” in Metamorphosis. Creative Imagination in Fine Arts between Life-Projects and Human Aesthetic Aspirations. Kluwer Academic. Metaporhosis flyer. (2006) A Romance with the Landscape: Realism to Impressionism. University of Kentucky Art Museum/distributed by University of Washington Press. Romance with the Landscape flyer. (2004) “Scholars and the Boundaries of ‘Truly French’ Art in the Fourth Republic” in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History. Administrative Experience Founding Director, Asbury University Paris Semester President of the Board, CIVA, 2009-2013 Co-founder and current board president, The Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA). Grants and Fund Development “Art and the Search for Meaning” book writing grant from CreoArts.org, 2025 Scholar in Residence, The American Church in Paris, fall 2016 Lilly Scholar Award through Asbury University’s Transformations Project, 2005-2007 Faculty Development Grant from The Christian College Consortium for 2007 photography exhibit Sacred Spaces in Central Kentucky, 2007 Research Residency, The Hans Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman Foundation, Antibes, France, summer 2004 Contact Linda Stratford X/TwitterThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.Your name(Required)Your email address(Required) Subject line:(Required)Message:(Required)FacStaff Email (please keep hidden) FacStaff Slug (please keep hidden)