Alexander Betz

Alexander Betz is a first-year doctoral student in the History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art (HTC) program. He is interested in intersections between the arts and the natural sciences, seeking to understand how objects' entanglement with the physical phenomena being discovered and debated during the time of their creation both animated and complicated their production of cultural meaning. Methodologically, his work is invested in foregrounding the dynamic chemical and energetic interchange roiling beneath the surface of all things, even and especially the seemingly inert.

Betz's work has been supported by a number of institutions, including the Association of Historians of American Art, the College Art Association, and Dumbarton Oaks. He received his M.A. in Art History specializing in the Arts of the Americas from the University of Arkansas, graduating as a member of the inaugural cohort. He also holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and a B.A. in Art History from the University of Washington, and an A.S. in Biological, Environmental/Resources, Chemistry, and Earth Sciences from Bellevue College.