Helen Hills

For the artist, see Helen Hill. For the location in New York State, see Helen Hill Historic District.

Helen Hills (born 1960) is a British art historian and academic. She was appointed Anniversary Reader of Art History at the University of York in 2005 and promoted to Professor of History of Art in 2008. Hence she was the first woman professor of Art History at that University^[1] Before this Helen Hills taught at the Universities of Keele and Manchester in the UK, at Queen's University in Canada and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has published numerous books and articles on art and architectural history. She has particular research interests in the baroque, and was a guest contributor to the BBC radio programme In Our Time about The Baroque Movement in November 2008 and "Night Waves" on 'The Baroque'.^[2]

Professor Helen Hills
Born	1960
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Oxford, Courtauld Institute of Art
Academic work
Discipline	History of Art

Education and employment

Helen Hills was educated at Cambridgeshire High School for Girls and studied for a BA Hons in Modern History at the University of Oxford. She gained both an MA (Distinction) and PhD in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London; as she was finishing her PhD, she took a sessional appointment at Queen’s University, Canada. She taught in the Adult Education Department at Keele University, and then accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Art History at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. She then went to work first as Junior Lecturer and then as Senior Lecturer in History of Art at University of Manchester (1998–2005). She joined the University of York in 2005 as Anniversary Reader in the History of Art. She was promoted to Professor of History of Art at the University of York in 2008.^[1] She was the first woman professor of History of Art at the University of York.

Awards and recognitions

• British Academy Conference Award 2020 for "The Matter of Silver" an international interdisciplinary conference July 2021 ^[3]

• Leverhulme Research Fellowship: 'Silver: Surface & Substance' 2018-19.^[4]
• Robert Lehman Visiting Professor, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, Italy, 2017.^[5]
• Ruth and Clarence Kennedy Professor in Renaissance Studies: Smith College, Mass., US, 2014.^[6]
• Distinguished Visiting Professor University of Colorado Boulder, US, 2014.^[7]
• Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Art, Emory University, US, 2013.^[7]
• Millard Meiss Publication Award, 2011 for The Matter of Miracles.^[8][9]
• Scouloudi Historical Award publication grant, 2011 from the Scouloudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research for The Matter of Miracles.^[10]
• Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Stockholm, Sweden: 2008.^[1]
• Weiss/Brown Publication Subvention Award, 2004 for Invisible City: The Architecture of Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Neapolitan Convents.^[11]
• Best Book Prize, 2004, the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women (US) awarded to Invisible City: The Architecture of Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Neapolitan Convents.^[12]

Publications

Helen Hills has published numerous books and articles on art and architectural history, including:

• Helen Hills (ed), Silver: Transformational Matter, published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, Proceedings of the British Academy 258, 2023, ISBN 9780197267547

• The Matter of Miracles: Neapolitan Baroque Architecture and Sanctity (Manchester University Press, 2016) ISBN 9780719084744^[13]
• New Approaches to Naples (Routledge, 2013) ISBN 9781409429432^[14]
• Rethinking the Baroque (Ashgate, 2011 and Routledge, 2016) ISBN 9781138249424^[15]
• Representing Emotions: New Connections in the Histories of Art, Music and Medicine, (Ashgate, 2005) ISBN 9781351904155^[16]
• Invisible City: The Architecture of Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Neapolitan Convents (Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 9780195117745^[17]
• Architecture and the Politics of Gender (Ashgate, 2003 and Routledge, 2017) ISBN 9781138275836^[18]
• Fabrications: New Art and Urban Memory in Manchester (Manchester: UMiM, 2002) ISBN 9780954369507^[19]
• Marmi Mischi Siciliani: Invenzione e Identità (Inlaid polychromatic marble decoration in early modern Sicily: Invention and identity) (Società Messinese di Storia Patria, 1999)^[20]

Hills edited Open Arts Journal, Issue 6: Baroque Naples: place and displacement, Winter 2017/8^[21]

Other information

Helen Hills was a guest contributor to the BBC radio programme In Our Time on The Baroque Movement (ironically enough, as she does not believe in a 'baroque movement') in November 2008.^[2] Night Waves Invited discussant on the 'Baroque': 20 March 2013. Photographs contributed by Helen Hills to the Conway Library are currently being digitised by the Courtauld Institute of Art, as part of the Courtauld Connects project.^[22]

References

1. "Helen Hills – History of Art, The University of York". www.york.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
2. "BBC Radio 4 – In Our Time, The Baroque Movement". BBC. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
3. "The matter of silver: Substance, surface, shimmer, trauma".
4. "Grant listings | The Leverhulme Trust". www.leverhulme.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
5. "Helen Hills | I Tatti | The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies". itatti.harvard.edu. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
6. "Smith College: Department Information". catalog.smith.edu. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
7. "Helen Hills – History of Art, The University of York". www.york.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
8. "Publishing Grants | Programs | CAA". www.collegeart.org. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
9. Association, College Art (5 December 2011). "Recipients of CAA's Meiss and Wyeth Publications Grants". CAA News | College Art Association. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
10. "Scouloudi Historical Award publication grant £1,000 from the Scouldoudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research for The Matter of Miracles – Research Database, The University of York". pure.york.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
11. Hills, Helen (12 February 2004). Invisible City: The Architecture of Devotion in Seventeenth Century Neapolitan Convents. OUP USA. ISBN 978-0-19-511774-5.
12. "2005 Awards". Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
13. "Manchester University Press – The matter of miracles". Manchester University Press. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
14. "New Approaches to Naples c.1500-c.1800: The Power of Place". CRC Press. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
15. "Rethinking the Baroque". CRC Press. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
16. "Representing Emotions: New Connections in the Histories of Art, Music and Medicine". CRC Press. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
17. Hills, Helen (12 February 2004). Invisible City: The Architecture of Devotion in Seventeenth Century Neapolitan Convents. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511774-5.
18. "Architecture and the Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe". CRC Press. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
19. Crinson, Mark; Hills, Helen; Rudd, Natalie (2002). Fabrications – New Art and Urban Memory in Manchester. UMiM Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9543695-0-7.
20. Hills, Helen. "Marmi Mischi Siciliani: Invenzione e Identità (Inlaid polychromatic marble decoration in early modern Sicily: Invention and identity), Società Messinese di Storia Patria, Scholarly monograph series, Messina, 1999 ISBN 9788887617306, 457pp". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
21. "Issue 6: Baroque Naples: place and displacement". Open Arts Journal. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
22. "Who made the Conway Library?". Digital Media. 30 June 2020.

External links

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