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At this year's Fairfield Awards Dinner, Katherine A. Schwab, PhD, will be recognized with the Distinguished Faculty/Administrator Award, which will be presented at the ceremony on Thursday, March 30, 2017 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. 

"Courses I teach focus on people and their cultural achievements from a long time ago, usually 2,500 years ago," Dr. Schwab said. "How to make that relevant to students in my classes is an exciting challenge and one that offers shared questions over time and space."

Dr. Schwab has taught at ¶¶Òô»ÆƬapp since 1988, after completing her PhD at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. She received her BA from Scripps College and her MA from Southern Methodist University. Her research areas include the Parthenon metopes and ancient Greek hairstyles. Her work on the Parthenon east and north metopes, a component of the large sculptural program and facilitated by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, has yielded new information on their original appearance. Results have been presented in the U.S. and internationally, and in several book chapter publications. Her Parthenon drawings form a traveling exhibition, An Archaeologist's Eye: The Parthenon Drawings of Katherine A. Schwab, touring the U.S. 2014-2018. Gray-scale scans of her drawings are permanently installed in the Acropolis Museum. She has curated exhibitions including Photographs of the Caryatid Hairstyling Project (2015) highlighting a video project (2009) that has been screened in Greece, Japan, Italy, and the U.S. Most recently she and Marice Rose, PhD, co-curated the exhibition, Hair in the Classical World, at the Bellarmine Hall Galleries (2015).

"In exploring ancient cultures I endeavor to encourage my students to seek their own creative and intellectual potential," Dr. Schwab said about her teaching style. "My students build a web of knowledge that forges links with a continuum of knowledge through the millennia."

As Curator of the Plaster Cast Collection at ¶¶Òô»ÆƬapp, Dr. Schwab oversees a collection of 100 casts from gifts and long-term renewable loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as gifts from Yale University Art Gallery, the Acropolis Museum and individual donors. Previously, she served as department chair for two consecutive terms, and as Art History program director for several years.

She was the inaugural faculty member of the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Board. Her areas of expertise and interest encompass Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology with courses developed in those areas and which are cross-listed with the Classical Studies program. She created the first courses in non-western art and Asian art for the curriculum. Students frequently participate in her research projects (plaster cast collection and ancient hairstyles) and contribute to brochures and other literature for campus and web-based visitors.

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This year marks the 75th anniversary of ¶¶Òô»ÆƬapp, a Catholic, Jesuit university with a proud past and an amazing future. We’re recognizing this milestone at the 2017 Fairfield Awards Dinner where we raise funds for student scholarships and celebrate our most accomplished alumni, faculty, staff and parents.

Join us on Thursday, March 30, 2017, at the Grand Hyatt NYC.  Learn more and register now at fairfield.edu/awardsdinner