A seasoned art historian and cultural guide, Professor Stephanie Nadalo is eager to facilitate students’ creative explorations in her new post as the director of the BFA Art, Media, and Technology program at Parsons Paris. Nadalo sees the degree as freeing students to experiment in a variety of analog and digital media and express themselves in the process. For her, Paris itself—a major center of art and culture—serves as an ideal classroom and lab.
For more than a decade, Nadalo has been immersing herself in the city, working as a licensed museum guide and educator at renowned institutions including the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Museum of Jewish Art and History. In 2014, she began teaching graduate and undergraduate Parsons Paris courses in art history and liberal arts in relation to museology. She also leads an undergraduate studio focused on design projects in the service of cultural mediation.
Nadalo’s study of urban centers, history, and creativity has coalesced throughout her academic journey, preparing her to lead the interdisciplinary BFA program. She completed a BA in Art History at Sarah Lawrence College and earned two master’s degrees from Northwestern University, one in history and the other in art history. For her history PhD, Nadalo conducted on-site research on the dynamics of cosmopolitan port cities and religious pluralism in early modern Italy and the Mediterranean. She was awarded a number of prestigious grants, including a Fulbright Fellowship, an American Academy in Rome Prize, and a visiting fellowship at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
Since moving from Italy to France, Nadalo has expanded the scope of her research to include the study of religiously diverse artistic communities in late-19th- and early-20th-century Paris. This scholarly path led Nadalo to take on the role of president of the Cité Falguière Association, an organization dedicated to preserving the cultural history of Montparnasse, including the 19th-century art studios that once housed artists including Gauguin, Modigliani, and Soutine. Her research on the challenges and opportunities faced by Cité Falguière’s inhabitants is supported by a residency at L’AiR Arts, a local cultural nonprofit. L’AiR Arts offers Nadalo a means of connecting past and current artistic practices, enabling her to collaborate with contemporary artists, curators, and cultural professionals around the world.
Today media platforms including BBC World News and France 24 look to Nadalo, with her distinctive blend of scholarly analysis and community involvement, to help them reflect on contemporary life in Paris. Nadalo’s students follow her lead, exploring and engaging with the people and forces that mold art and society.
“I believe a global education helps cultivate a more empathetic worldview,” says Nadalo, who considers Parsons Paris’ diverse international community a key asset in challenging students to think beyond borders and conventional ideas.
As she steps into her new role as program director, Nadalo feels inspired to continue cultivating a space where students can employ creative cross-disciplinary research to interpret and shape life in Paris and beyond.