Professor Emerita Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier 

Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier is a much-loved Professor Emerita of Art History whose guided tours of Parisian museums and monuments have for many decades delighted students, alumni and friends of the University. Wilson-Chevalier taught a variety of gender studies and art history courses at AUP until her retirement in 2016. Beginning in 2004-2005, she oversaw a partnership between AUP and the Louvre Museum, which has allowed students to present works of art at the Louvre on designated student evenings. She returns to the University regularly to run tours for friends and alumni at community events.

Wilson-Chevalier received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and her PhD from Université de Paris-IV Sorbonne. She is a specialist of female patronage in the French Renaissance and has published several edited volumes on women at the French court. Her recent work includes studies of the patronage of Renée de France, a French princess who later became Duchess of Ferrara, and another of Louise de Bourbon-Montpensier in the Loire Valley.

During her time at AUP, she taught one of the Department of Art History and Fine Arts’ most-popular and longest-running classes, Paris Through Its Architecture. The course is open to students at any level, regardless of art history background, and acts as many students’ first introduction to the architectural beauty of the City of Light. By witnessing buildings in context, students develop an understanding of the continuing relevance of art history today, as well as an appreciation of how urban settings evolve.