Brian A. Curran *97

Brian Curran, a professor of art history at Penn State University, died July 11, 2017, of complications from ALS at age 64.

Curran earned a BFA degree in art history from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1979 and a master’s degree in art history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1989. In 1997, he earned a Ph.D. in art history from Princeton, and then joined the art history faculty at Penn State. Earlier, he had spent six years at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and was a teaching fellow at Columbia University.

At Penn State, Curran became a full professor in 2011. He was internationally recognized as a scholar of Italian Renaissance art, plus sculpture, film, and historiography. His former graduate students honored him with a Festschrift symposium in 2016.

Curran received Penn State’s four most coveted awards for teaching and scholarship. An author of extensive work, Curran often presented his research at national and international conferences and symposia. He was also president of the Penn State chapter of the AAUP. Known as principled and passionate, Curran was committed to progressive politics and social justice.

He is survived by his wife, Mary; mother Doris; three siblings; and five nieces and nephews.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.