Juilee Decker
Professor
Juilee Decker
Professor
Education
BA, Wittenberg University; MA, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign; Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University
Bio
Dr. Juilee Decker (she/her) is a faculty member in the Department of History and Director of the Museum Studies program in the College of Liberal Arts.
Trained as an art historian, Dr. Decker's research and scholarship are at the intersection of museum studies, public history, and technology.
Dr. Decker is an author, scholar, facilitator, and collaborator in the academy as well as in cultural institutions and communities. At RIT, Dr. Decker is co-PI with Dr. David Messinger (Imaging Science, RIT) on an National Endowment for the Humanities PR-268783-20 (2020-2023) that has created, tested, and iterated a low-cost spectral imaging system and software to recover obscured and illegible text on historical documents. This multi-year, interdisciplinary project enhances the work of library, archive, and museum professionals and is only one of the many experiential learning opportunities undertaken by RIT museum studies students under the guidance of faculty from RIT. She also co-directs the Cultural Heritage Imaging Lab. To visit the lab, please email Dr. Decker, jdgsh@rit.edu. To learn more about this initiative, see https://linktr.ee/mishasystem.
Publications include:
- Since 2008, she has served as editor of Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, a peer-reviewed journal published by SAGE.
- In 2015, she edited the four-volume series Innovative Approaches for Museums which brought together research and practices in the areas of engagement, access, technology, collections care and stewardship, as well as fundraising and strategic planning.
- In 2017, she revised Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums, a cornerstone publication in museum studies. Her 4th edition of the book is forthcoming in 2024.
- In 2019, she published her first monograph, an examination of public art, monuments, memorials and memory in Kentucky: Enid Yandell: Kentucky's Pioneer Sculptor was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2019.
- In 2023, her edited volume Fallen Monuments and Contested Memorials was published by Routledge. In addition to writing the introduction and conclusion for this volume, she authored the chapter "The Disparity Between Us": Rochester’s Frederick Douglass Memorial and its Inscription on the 21st-Century Landscape."
- In 2024, she co-curated Co-Crafting Democracy with Professor Hinda Mandell. The exhibit will be on view at the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls.
Dr. Decker has curated/co-curated numerous exhibitions focusing on art, material culture, and public history and has served as a consultant to public art projects and programs in the U.S. The exhibition Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts & Activism (co-curated with Hinda Mandell) debuted in Rochester in June 2019 and traveled to venues in New York, Ohio, and Virginia through 2020. She curated Illuminating the Medieval and the Modern: A Brief History of Cultural Heritage Imaging at RIT, with students in the Cultural Heritage Imaging Lab. The show was on view in the Fall 2023.
Dr. Decker earned her Ph.D. in 2003 from the joint program in Art History and Museum Studies at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Prior to joining the faculty of RIT in 2014, Dr. Decker taught at Georgetown College.
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Currently Teaching
In the News
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June 21, 2024
Cultural heritage imaging system expands international impact to South America
Led by Professor Juilee Decker, Professor David Messinger, and Professor Roger Easton Jr., the development of the MISHA system was originally planned to help small- to medium-sized cultural institutions in the United States.
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May 13, 2024
Ceramics and Illustration graduate Emma Herz Thakur travels to France as a Fulbright awardee
Emma Herz Thakur ’24 feels fortunate that at RIT she met people who have won major grants, had their work featured in museums, and are connected with scholars from around the world. Now, she is one of them.
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January 24, 2024
Exploring themes, motivations, and the influencing power of historic military propaganda
A collection of war era ephemera and propaganda art on display now at the University Gallery connects viewers to the experiences and perceptions of the time.
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July 17, 2024
Decker and Mandell co-curate exhibit
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July 21, 2023
Museum studies student presents at conference in Norway
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July 21, 2023
Decker, Messinger present on multispectral imaging project
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January 13, 2023
Team demos multispectral imaging system
Featured Work
Providing Discoverability and Accessibility of Historical Documents to Museums and Libraries
Juilee Decker, Steven Galbraith
Students in the Museum Studies degree program are working alongside research scientists from the College of Science Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science to create, test, and iterate a low...