Dr. Maureen Pelta PhD

• Preferred Pronouns: she/she/hers

Maureen Pelta, professor of Art History and Curatorial Studies, and president of the Moore Federation of Teachers, holds a PhD in the history of art from Bryn Mawr College, as well as an MA and BA from Temple University. She has written and lectured extensively on the culture of Renaissance Italy, with topics ranging from Correggio and Vasari, to the significance of Rome for the development of Renaissance artistic practice, and Italian garden history, contributing articles to a variety of publications including The Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, The Dictionary of Art and The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, in addition to gallery and book reviews. More recently, "Figured Speech: the Ideal of the Classical Orator in Donatello's Bronze Doors for San Lorenzo," was published in the South Atlantic Review (December 2018); and "What Becomes a Legend: Correggio at the Crossroads of Biography and Style," in Space, Image, Reform in Early Modern Art: The Influence of Marcia Hall, ed. Arthur DiFuria and Ian Verstegen, The Medieval Institute and Amsterdam University Press (Winter 2021).

A native Philadelphian, Pelta has been active in community education, conducting Holocaust education workshops for public school teachers, and as a founding member of the Consortium of Holocaust Educators of Greater Philadelphia. She chairs the Mordecai Anielewicz Creative Arts Competition, an annual program for Philadelphia-area middle and high school students. This contest focuses on the Holocaust as a means of understanding history in order to encourage students to address issues of prejudice and racism through the arts.