Ann Collins Johns

Ann Johns received her PhD from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on medieval and Renaissance art and architecture of Siena and the role of monasticism in the arts of this period. She recently contributed a chapter to a collection of essays on the relationship between art and politics in Siena (Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena, 2012). Johns has given talks at Kalamazoo, TEMA, and the University of Georgia on the subjects of politics and art in Siena as well as the role of Cistercian architecture in late Medieval Italy.

Johns has taught at both UT-Austin and Southwestern University. Her classes have included: the introductory classes; Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art history; Art Historical Methodology; Art in the Age of Dante and Giotto; Art and the City in Renaissance Italy; and a UGS seminar, The Pope’s City: The Vatican and St. Peter’s through the Millennia. For the past 8 years, Johns has taught numerous art history classes and served as ground and program director in Italy for the Department of Art and Art History’s Learning Tuscany program, located in Castiglion Fiorentino.

In addition to the Regents Outstanding Teaching Award (2011), Johns also received the College of Fine Arts Distinguished Teaching Award for 2012-2013. Johns was a featured speaker in the 2014 University Lecture Series and contributed an essay on the incorporation of the Blanton Museum of Art into UGS curricula for a book on the development of UT’s Signature / Freshman Experience classes.