Temple University

Lily F. Scott (she/they) is a PhD candidate specializing in American Modernism, with a focus on queer art and artists. Her dissertation, Neither Then nor Now: Queer Temporalities & Interwar Portraits of Expatriate Sapphists, examines the portraiture of/by queer American women artists living in 1920s Paris and employs several queer theoretical lenses, including those pertaining to performance, reception, trauma, archives, and temporalities. Lily is currently a fellow at The Center for the Humanities at Temple, completing her dissertation. 

Lily was the 2021-2023 Barra Fellow in American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. During this time, they curated the exhibition Seeing with Empathy: The Female Gaze in American Modernism, which presents the work of American artists employing a type of looking that focuses on perceiving peoples’ emotions and interior selves. Lily also founded and led PMA’s Queer Representation in Art Learning Community (QRALC), a staff group dedicated to exploring and sharing the queer narratives found throughout the museum’s collections. They participated in the CCL/Mellon Seminar in Curatorial Practice in July of 2023.  

Lily has taught numerous undergraduate courses at Tyler School of Art and University of the Arts and was awarded the 2020/21 Tyler Art History Graduate Teaching Award. She previously worked as an educator at The Barnes Foundation, as well. Lily’s work has been generously supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Barra Foundation, The Center for Curatorial Leadership, The Center for the Humanities at Temple, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Tyler School of Art. She completed her master’s work at Temple University and earned her bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College.  

BA, Art History, Bryn Mawr College, 2012 

Dissertation Title: Neither Then nor Now: Queer Temporalities & Interwar Portraits of Expatriate Sapphists  

Advisor: Erin Pauwels, PhD