Elizabeth Hill Boone - Academic Career

Academic Career

Elizabeth Hill Boone commenced her undergraduate studies in fine arts at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, obtaining a B.A. in 1970. She then studied art history at California State University, Northridge in 1971–72, and completed her postgraduate degrees at the University of Texas at Austin, obtaining an MA in 1974 and a PhD in pre-Columbian art history, which was awarded in 1977.

After receiving her PhD, Boone secured a research associate position at University of Texas at San Antonio's Research Center for the Arts, where she worked for three years. In 1980 Boone took up a position in pre-Columbian studies at the research institution she would be associated with for the next fifteen years, the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection located in Washington, D.C.. Initially as associate curator (1980–83) and then as Director of Pre-Columbian Studies and Curator of the Pre-Columbian Collection (1983–95), Boone oversaw and held responsibility for Dumbarton Oaks' research and scholarship programs, symposia and colloquia, scheduled publications and the curatorship of the institution's libraries and collection of pre-Columbian artworks. From 2006 onwards Boone has retained a position as one of the six-member Board of Senior Fellows in pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks.

In 1995 Boone relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana to become professor of art history at Tulane University, where she taught courses on Mesoamerican, Aztec and colonial-era art history, general art interpretation and theory, and continued to publish research papers and books in the field.

In 1990 Boone was awarded the Orden del Águila Azteca (Order of the Aztec Eagle), Mexico's highest decoration awarded to non-citizens.

During 2010 Boone served as president of the American Society for Ethnohistory.