Paula Birnbaum is the Academic Director of Museum Studies and Associate Professor of Arts History/Arts Management and Academic Director of the Museum Studies Master of Arts Program at USF. Paula is a specialist in modern and contemporary art and holds a doctorate in Art History from Bryn Mawr College. She is a former Fulbright Scholar and fellow at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University. In 2014 Paula received the University of San Francisco, Faculty Union (USFFA) Distinguished Research Award (university wide award), and in 2008 she received the Distinguished Teaching Award. She enjoys teaching a variety of classes including the introductory graduate course, Museum Studies - History and Theory, as well as undergraduate courses in Modern and Contemporary Art, European Art 1900-1945, Women and Art, and a new course on Israeli and Palestinian Art. She enjoys working with students on exhibition projects in USF's Thacher Gallery, and has supervised student internships since 2003 with educators from Bay Area Museums including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, SFMOMA, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, among many others.