News and Recent Publications

In August of 2025, Yale University Press published Liquid Gold: Lactation as Labor and Human Milk as Commodity in North American Visual Culture.

In 2024, Yale University Press publshed Nourish and Resist: Food and Feminisms in Contemporary Global Caribbean Art, co-edited with Lesley Wolff.

Having recently curated an exhibition and written a book chapter on visual cultures of Hurricane Katrina, in 2024 Hannah co-authored with Melinda Gonzalez, How to Hold on to a Hurricane, published in ASAP Journal. 

In 2025, Hannah received tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. 

Bio

Having completed her Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Studies at Cornell University in 2019, Professor Ryan joined the faculty at St. Olaf that Fall. She also holds an M.A. in Art History, a B.F.A. in Studio Art, and a B.A. in Humanities from the University of Colorado. In 2017, she was awarded an American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship. In 2022, she was awarded a Cassling Award for Teaching Innovation for her work on the Acquisitions Project; you can read more about the project here. 

Professor Ryan's areas of research include Transatlantic visual culture, modern and contemporary arts of the African diaspora, African American art, Latin American art, intersectional feminism, and women artists. With a decolonial and feminist perspective, her work engages with issues of race and gender through theories of consumption, labor, recuperation, and care - frequently as they intersect with maternity. An occasional curator, Hannah has organized exhibitions on contemporary film, video, and photography. She has a professional background in the museum field, specifically education and outreach, at The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, The Norton Museum of Art, and The Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. 

At St. Olaf she teaches courses in Modern and Contemporary Art, including Introduction to Art History and Methods of Art History. Some favorite courses include Latin American Modernism, Museum Controversies, Art Since 1945, and African American Art. In January of 2023, she greatly enjoyed teaching Georgia O'Keeffe and Arts of New Mexico, leading a group of students through artists' studios, deserts, galleries, hiking trails, museums, restaurants, and ski hills of Northern New Mexico. 

Off of "the hill," Hannah can be found hanging out with her family, downhill skiing, reading, swimming, hiking, visiting museums, and plotting novel adventures.