Ithaca College

After 27 years of service to Ithaca College, Prof. Stephen Clancy of the Art History department has announced his retirement, effective at the end of May 2015.

Stephen joined the Art History department in 1988 as its resident "medievalist," after receiving his Ph.D from Cornell University. He quickly developed a variety of courses at all levels of the curriculum dealing with the art and architecture of the Middle Ages and Northern Renaissance, as well as teaching (at one time or another) virtually all of the department's 100-level general education classes, and a course in the H&S Honors program. He served as the Art History department's chair four times for a total of 10 ½ years and served on a number of departmental committees and task forces. He particularly enjoyed organizing and leading several departmental field trips to New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. He also served on many committees across the school and college, including the H&S Curriculum committee (with a stint as co-chair), the H&S Faculty Senate (as one of its original members, and on its executive committee), and Faculty Council (serving on its executive committee as well).

In the late 1990s and early 2000s Stephen participated in H&S's digital humanities initiative, including grants from the Keck and Hewlett foundations, under the auspices of which he produced his interactive "Virtual Chartres Cathedral" site. He and his family spent 11 months in Belgium on a Fulbright grant, and he has twice been on sabbaticals to Australia, once as a Research Fellow at the Australia National University's Humanities Research Center in Canberra.

More recently, in order to diversify both his own knowledge and the department's curriculum, Stephen developed two new courses: “Muslims, Jews, and Christians in Medieval Spain,” and “Jewish Imagery, Images of Jews” (offered for the first time just this past fall). And for a number of years he has served on the Steering Committee of the Jewish Studies program.

Although he’ll miss his time with students in the classroom, Stephen assures us that he's looking forward to what the world outside of academia has to offer. Please join us in wishing Stephen the very best in the next chapters of his life!