Lisa Wainwright

Lisa Wainwright (born September 1960) is an American art historian at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She previously served SAIC as the Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs, as well as Title IX officer for faculty. Wainwright received a Ph.D. in the history of 19th and 20th-century art, University of Illinois, 1993; an M.A. in history of 19th and 20th-century art, University of Illinois, December 1986, and a B.A. cum laude, Vanderbilt University, art history, June 1982. She also studied at the Goethe-Institut in Blaubeuren, Germany, in summer 1982.

Wainwright's historical research is focused on Robert Rauschenberg. Her dissertation, Reading Junk: Thematic Imagery in the Art of Robert Rauschenberg from 1954 to 1964, is cited in the Rauschenberg Research Project, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and in the book The Great Migrator: Robert Rauschenberg and the Global Rise of American Art, by Hiroko Ikegami, MIT Press, 2010. She states that her study of Rauschenberg has influenced her work at SAIC. "Rauschenberg has helped me be a better dean," she explains. "He touched on every medium, from sculpture and painting to printmaking and art technology. His transdisciplinary approach to art has been such an influence on the way I educate the next generation of artists here." Wainwright was invited to discuss Rauschenberg's life and legacy on Bad At Sports, EPISODE 144.