Lisa M. Rafanelli, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor Lisa Rafanelli joined the Department of Art History at Manhattanville College in 2004 as a full-time member of the faculty, after earning her Ph.D. from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts with her dissertation, The Ambiguity of Touch: Saint Mary Magdalene and the "Noli Me Tangere" in Early Modern Italy. A specialist in the art of the Italian Renaissance, Prof. Rafanelli teaches a wide range of courses from the introductory level Survey of Art History, to courses on Medieval Art and Architecture, Art in Italy during the Early and High Renaissance, Northern Renaissance Art, and Baroque Art and Architecture in Italy. Her advanced seminars have focused on the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, the Art of 15th Century Florence, and the Art of Renaissance Venice. Prof. Rafanelli's newest seminar, Women Artists of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque, focused new attention on a more underappreciated aspect of Renaissance studies. Prof. Rafanelli regularly participates in the department's annual Study Tours abroad, with trips to Venice (2008), Rome (2009) and Tuscany (2010). She will be returning to Rome in 2012 with another group of students.

Prof. Rafanelli has an extensive list of publications, conference papers and talks. She is a regular participant and session chair at the Annual College Art Association conferences. Publications that are forthcoming or currently in press include, "Michelangelo's Noli Me Tangere for Vittoria Colonna: A Reflection of the Changing Status of Women in Renaissance Italy," in Reinventing Mary Magdalene: Iconographical Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, ed. Amy Morris and Michelle Erhart (Leiden: Brill) (scheduled for 2012); "Thematizing Vision in the Renaissance: The Noli Me Tangere as a Metaphor for Art Making" in Sense and the Senses in Early Modern Art and Cultural Practice, A. Sanger and S. Kulbrandstad Walken, eds., Ashgate (in press, forthcoming 2011); "To Touch or Not to Touch: The Noli Me Tangere and Incredulity of Thomas in Word and Image from Early Christianity to the Ottonian period," in Noli Me Tangere: Text Image Context: Contributions of Exegesis, Art History, Philosophy and Literature Studies Concerning the Prohibition of Touch in John 20:17 (Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia) Peeter's Publishers (in press, forthcoming 2011).

In 2009, Prof. Rafanelli took over the duties of Chairperson of the Department of Art History. In the Spring 2011 term, Prof. Rafanelli was granted her first sabbatical. During this time she worked on the manuscript of a book to be co-authored by Dr. Erin Benay, titled Gender and Belief in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art.