Biography
Dr. Samantha Kavky teaches courses in European and American art history from the Renaissance to the present, as well as integrated general education courses on the representation of gender in the arts, women artists, psychology and art, and the history and representation of witchcraft. Her research interests include the twentieth century movements of Dada and Surrealism, gender studies, and the intersections between art, psychology, and anthropology. She has published on the surrealist landscape, on the artist Max Ernst and his engagement with Freudian theory and on camouflage. She is a co-founder and editor of the online Journal of Surrealism and the Americas.
Research Interests
Dr. Kavky's current research includes surrealism post WWII, environmental concerns and the atomic age.
Publications
Surrealist Landscapes in the American West. New York and London: Routledge, 2026.
with Claudia Mesch, Karen Carter and Keri Watson. Art History: A Thematic Approach, Renaissance to the Present. San Diego, CA: Cognella, 2026
“Surrealism in the Desert: The Arizona Landscapes of Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning” in Surrealism and Ecology, eds. Iveta Slavkova, Anne Marie Butler and Donna Roberts. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2025. 163-178.
with Bryan Wang, David Livert, Sandy Feinstein, “Seeing Birds and Biodiversity through Science and Art: An Integrated Community Education Program. The Journal of Sustainability and Education (2023) http://www.susted.com/wordpress/content/seeing-birds-and-biodiversity-t…
“Max Ernst and the Second World War: Witches, Chimeras, and Totems,” Monsters and Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s. Eds. Oliver Shell and Oliver Tostmann. New York: Rizzoli Electa, 2018. 69-93.
“Surrealism, War and the Art of Camouflage,” Dada and Surrealism, Transatlantic Aliens on American Shores, 1914-1945, The Space Between—Literature and Culture, 1914-1945, 14 (2018), 27 pages.
https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-space-between-literature-and-culture-1…
“Max Ernst’s Post World War I Studies in Hysteria,” The Space Between—Literature and Culture, 1914-1945 8.1 (2012): 37-63.
https://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/s…
“Max Ernst in Arizona: Myth, Mimesis and the Hysterical Landscape,” Res—Anthropology and Aesthetics 57/58 (Spring/Autumn 2010), 209-228.
https://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/s…
“Dream Work: Ernst’s Rêve d’une petite fille qui voulut entrer au Carmel,” Source 27 nos. 2-3 (Winter/Spring 2008): 56-64.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23208137
“Authorship and Identity in Max Ernst’s Loplop,” Art History 28.3 (June 2005): 357-385.
https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1111/j.0141-6790.2005.004…
Education
- Ph.D., History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
- M.A., History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
- B.A., Art History, New College of Sarasota, Florida