Mary Anne Staniszewski studies culture and art in relation to political and social notions. Her books are Believing Is Seeing: Creating the Culture of Art and The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art .Staniszewski organized a symposium on contemporary slavery at Exit Art in New York. Staniszewski holds a PhD in Art History from the Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York, and is a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

• What is art?; art and the modern subject; the term "art"; aesthetics - the theory of art; the privelege - creating art; the academy; the museum; the discipline - art history and the development of modernism; the avany-garde, popular culture, and the creation of the mass media; art and culture today.