Professor Marnin Young is Associate Professor of Art History at Stern College for Women. Professor Young was born in Indiana and grew up on the west coast. He received both his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley. His doctoral dissertation eventually turned into a book, recently published by Yale University Press, entitled Realism in the Age of Impressionism: Painting and the Politics of Time. Before coming to Yeshiva University, Professor Young taught art history at the San Francisco Art Institute and Texas Christian University.

1. What is your favorite aspect of your job at YU?

Interacting with students has been the most consistently rewarding aspect of working at YU. The enthusiasm, seriousness, and endless questioning that our students bring to the classroom is infectious and stimulating. It makes teaching a pleasure and contributes significantly to my research and writing as well.

2. What type of careers do your students have upon graduation?

Some of my students have found jobs in art galleries and auction houses in New York, while others have pursued parallel careers in teaching or fund-raising. Art history majors have also continued on to graduate school at top-tier programs like the Institute for Fine Art (NYU), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and The Courtauld Institute in London.

3. What profession did you think you would one day hold when you were a child?

As a child, I always thought I would grow up to be an architect. I even started a degree in architecture at the age of 18, before I realized that the history of architecture was what really interested me. This led to the study of the history of art more broadly, which has occupied me ever since.

4. How do you stay connected with students once they graduate?

I hear from students regularly after they graduate. Some I see in person around school, others have moved elsewhere and stay in touch via email. A couple years ago, I met up with some former students while we were attending the College Art Association meeting in Chicago. And, of course, it’s not at all unusual just to run into students on the streets of New York.

5. Who is your favorite artist and why?

Georges Seurat. He’s most famous for his 1886 work A Sunday on the Grande Jatte. A large picture depicting the idle pleasures of a Sunday afternoon in a Paris park, it was painted using thousands of tiny colored dots, a technique called pointillism. For me, this artistic mixture of harmony and discipline captures something profound about life in the modern world.

6. What would your colleagues and students be surprised to learn about you?

I love to cook. One of the great things about living in New York City is the enormous number of restaurants, but I also really enjoy preparing food myself.