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Christopher Steiner teaches interdisciplinary courses in art history, anthropology and museum studies. His classes explore the traditional and contemporary arts of Africa; the visual representation of race and identity in art and film; the history of museums and contemporary museum controversies; kitsch and “bad” art; and the history and practice of studio and vernacular photography.

His field research in West Africa focused on the construction of value and meaning in art through transnational exchange, resulting in numerous articles and his award-winning book (Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Over the past two decades, Steiner has curated exhibitions at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Fairfield University Art Museum, the William Benton Museum of Art. and Shain Library at Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­. His exhibitions include ; ; ; ; Labors of Love: Work, Family and Play in American Folk Photography (2024); Behind the Curtain: The Art and Photobooth Collection of Näkki Goranin (2025); and .

Steiner’s current research explores the history of vernacular or “folk” photography, with a particular focus on photo postcards. As part of this research, he has assembled a personal collection of approximately 20,000 vernacular photographs, including photo postcards, arcade and carnival portraits, and studio tintypes. His current book project, Hustling Pictures: Photography and the Commodification of Everyday Life, examines the history of photography through the lens of commerce and petty trade.

Major or minor in Art History
Major or minor in Anthropology
Museum Studies Certificate Program

Courses Taught

Selected Books, Articles and Exhibition Catalogs

, an exhibition curated by Chirstopher B. Steiner with assistance from students in AHI 250 (Fall 2025). New London: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 2026.

Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ Magazine, pp. 12-25, Winter 2026.

with essays by Näkki Goranin and Brian Wallis. An exhibition and catalog organized by Christopher B. Steiner with curatorial assistance from students in AHI 250 (Fall 2024). New London; Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­, Shain Library, 2025.

with essays Natalie Curley and Lucy Sante. An exhibition and catalog organized by Christopher B. Steiner with curatorial assistance from students in AHI 250 (Fall 2023). New London: Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­, Shain Library, 2024.

” In Real Photos Postcards: Pictures from a Changing Nation, edited by Lynda Klich and Benjamin Weiss. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, pp. 138-149, 2022.

. Exhibition catalog. Fairfield University Museum of Art, 2018.

“Reading Time: An Anthropology of Clocks in the History of Photography.” In , Second Edition, edited by Jeremy MacClancy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 337-62, 2019.

Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture 12(1): 36-51, 2018.

with Silvia Forni. Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture 12(1): 1-7, 2018. 

, edited with Roy Richard Grinker, Euclides Filipe and Stephen Lubkemann. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2019.

, edited with Silvia Forni. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum. Distributed by University of Washington Press, 2015.

pp. 147-163. In Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection, edited with Silvia Forni. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum. Distributed by University of Washington Press, 2015.

In The Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics: Redefining Ethics for the Twenty-First Century Museum, edited by Janet Marstine, pp. 393-413. London: Taylor and Francis, 2011.

, written and edited with Roy Richard Grinker and Stephen C. Lubkemann. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1997 and 2010.

In Questions of Tradition, edited by Mark Salber Phillips and Gordon Schochet, pp. 88-109. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.

In Art History and Its Institutions, edited by Elizabeth Mansfield, pp. 132-45. New York: Routledge, 2002.

“Art/Anthropology/Museums: Revulsions and Revolutions.” In , edited by Jeremy MacClancy, pp. 399-417. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

“Rights of Passage: On the Liminal Identity of Art in the Border Zone.” In , edited by Fred R. Myers, pp. 207-231. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 2001.

, edited and introduced with Ruth B. Phillips. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

The Art Bulletin 78(2): 213- 217, 1996.

“Travel Engravings and the Construction of the Primitive.” In , edited by Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush, pp. 202-225, 416-418. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995. 

“The Art of the Trade: On the Creation of Value and Authenticity in the African Art Market.” In , edited by George E. Marcus and Fred R. Myers, pp. 151-165, 1995.

Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 119: 75-94, 1994.

. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Anthropos 85(4-6): 431-445.

Ethnohistory 32(2): 91-110.

In the News…

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“Behind the Curtain: Student-curated Exhibition Reveals the Art of the Photo Booth.” November 21, 2024.

“Americana Anonymous: A Student-curated Exhibition Puts the Focus on the Working Poor at the Turn of the 20th Century.” Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ Magazine, Winter 2024.

“Four Covers: The Story Behind our Covers for This Issue.” Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ Magazine, Winter 2024

“Labors of Love: Students Curate Photography Exhibition of 19th- and early 20th-century Portraits.” November 20, 2023.