Susan E. Cahan is an art historian, curator and educator who specializes in contemporary art and the history of museums. Her research focuses on artistic and museological practices that intervene in and reshape structures of knowledge and power. 

This interest is exemplified in her book, Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power (Duke University Press, 2016), which examines the impact of the civil rights movement on art museums through a series of case studies focusing on New York City.

Cahan has been the dean of Tyler since 2017. She previously served as Associate Dean for the Arts at Yale College from 2009 to 2017 and a lecturer at the Yale School of Art. Prior to this she was the Des Lee Professor in Contemporary Art and an Associate Dean at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. From 1994 to 2003, she was a faculty member at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and has served as a visiting professor in the department of art at the University of California, Los Angeles (2001, 2003).

She has over 20 years of experience as a curator and museum professional. From 1996 to 2001, Cahan served as the senior curator for the private collection of Eileen and Peter Norton and director of arts programs for the Peter Norton Family Foundation. She has held positions at The Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a recipient of an Arts Writer's Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, among other awards.