Richard Turnbull, PhD

Professor | Art History and Museum Professions; History of Art
Richard Turnbull

(212) 217-4668

Business and Liberal Arts Center, Room B648

Education

BA, Cornell University
MA, PhD, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

2007-2008 State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching

Biography

Richard Turnbull is Professor in the History of Art department. He received his MA and PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, where he majored in Islamic art and architecture and minored in modern art. He also earned a BA in history from Cornell University. He has received fellowships from the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) program, the Institute of Turkish Studies, the American Research Institute in Turkey and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His most recent published articles are on Islamic mosques and fortifications and the photographer Luke Smalley. An article on the wall paintings of the Muradiye tomb complex in Bursa, Turkey was published in 2006 in a festschrift for Dr. Priscilla Soucek of the Institute for Fine Arts.

Before entering graduate school, Dr. Turnbull wrote pop music criticism for The Village Voice, Praxis, and The Cornell Daily Sun (among others), and worked as a graphic designer. He also lectures and teaches regularly at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has lectured as well on the Queen Mary 2 and other cruise ships. He teaches at Columbia University in the summer. Dr. Turnbull is also a practicing photographer and printmaker and whenever possible brings his fine art and travel experience to bear in the classroom. He has lived in Turkey and traveled extensively in the Islamic world and participated in the joint NYU-Harvard excavation at Aphrodisias in southwestern Turkey.

Before coming to FIT Dr. Turnbull taught at City College, the College of Staten Island and the College of New Rochelle. During that time he also published an article on the vicissitudes of adjunct life and teaching in the anthology, Ghosts in the Classroom.

Courses

  • HA 111 Prehistoric to Medieval
  • HA 112 Renaissance to Modern
  • HA 214 Art in New York
  • HA 226 Art and Civilization of Islam
  • HA 311 Medieval Art
  • HA 343 History of Photography
  • HA 345 History of Industrial Design