Allyson Williams
Lecturer
Art History
SDSU
Bio
At San Diego State since 1996, Dr. Williams teaches lower division survey classes, upper division classes in Renaissance and Baroque art, and a seminar in Renaissance Courtly Patronage. Her master’s research was on Venetian Renaissance palace architecture, and her doctoral dissertation was on the 16th century artistic patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara, Alfonso I d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia. Her current research interests include gender issues and concepts of the self in the Italian Renaissance, the ideology of courtly patronage of the visual arts, the history of collecting, and the early modern interior. Dr. Williams has published on the portraits of Lucrezia Borgia and on the politics of display in Este castle in Ferrara. She has traveled and done extensive research in Italy and regularly presents papers at the annual conferences of the Sixteenth Century Studies Society, the Renaissance Society of Southern California, and the Renaissance Society of America. Dr. Williams received her B.A. in International Relations and English Literature, a Diploma in Art History and her M.A. degree in Art History from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Her Ph.D. is from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has also taught at the University of British Columbia, Capilano College, UCLA and Point Loma Nazarene University.