The Codex Mendoza with Dr. Daniela Bleichmar

Daniela Bleichmar is Professor of Art History and History at the University of Southern California. She is the founding director of the Levan Institute for the Humanities and the director of the USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities. She previously served as Associate Provost for Faculty and Student Initiatives in the Arts and Humanities (2015–2020). She studied at Harvard University (BA, 1996) and Princeton University (PhD, 2005). Her research and teaching address the histories of art and science in colonial Latin America and early modern Europe, focusing particularly on the histories of knowledge production; cultural contact and exchange; museums, collecting and display; and books and prints. Her book Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American from Columbus to Darwin (Yale University Press, 2017) explores the intertwined histories of art and science, the Americas and Europe from 1492 to 1859. Professor Bleichmar is also the author of Visible Empire. Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2012). She is currently working on two research projects: The Itinerant Lives of Painted Books: Mexican Codices and Transatlantic Knowledge in the Early Modern World and The Museum of Difficult Objects.