Wendy Steiner

Symposium

Wendy Steiner is the Richard L. Fisher Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, past Chair of the Penn English Department, and Founding Director of the Penn Humanities Forum.  Among her books on modern literature and visual art are The Real Real Thing:  The Model in the Mirror of Art (2010); Venus in Exile:  The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art (2001); and The Scandal of Pleasure:  Art in an Age of Fundamentalism (listed among "New York Times 100 Best Books of 1996").  Her cultural criticism has appeared widely in U.S. and U.K. papers and her honors include Guggenheim and ACLS fellowships.  Most recently, Steiner has turned to multimedia opera, as librettist and producer/director of The Loathly Lady (2009; composer Paul Richards; artist John Kindness) and Biennale (composer Richards; artist Andrew Lucia; in development).