The Author
About
Catherine V. Olien is a novelist and art historian. She holds a PhD in art history from Northwestern University, where her dissertation traced how ancient Cypriot sculpture--neither fully "Greek" nor "Near Eastern"--was excavated, collected, and classified in different ways by nineteenth-century scholars at the Louvre and British Museums.
A native of the Midwest, her research brought her across Europe and the Mediterranean between 2014 and 2018: first to Berlin as a Fulbright researcher at the Technische Universität and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (SMB), then on a graduate exchange with Royal Holloway (University of London), then to Paris as a Kress institutional fellow at the Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), and finally to Nicosia, Cyprus as a Swiny fellow of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI).
She remained in Paris after completing her PhD, marrying a French man and adopting a French dog. From 2018 to 2021 she was programs manager of the American Library in Paris, a century-old institution steps away from the Eiffel Tower, where she hosted nearly a hundred programs a year and curated its signature series, Evenings with an Author. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she moved the series online and took a more active role moderating discussions with authors, journalists, and other public figures. A selection of those conversations is here.
From 2021 to 2026, she was associate director of the Center for Humanities Research at George Mason University. She was recently promoted to associate director for strategic engagement, humanities and the arts, under George Mason University's Office of Research and remains affiliate faculty in history and art history. She supports research that bridges the humanities and arts, and moves between the university and the public sphere. Eager to maintain a foot in the literary world, she moderates author panels at the university’s Fall for the Book festival and writes book reviews for Lit Society™ by Bond & Grace. Her first review is of Natalie Lemle’s Artifacts.
She is seeking representation for her creative work, including two novels, "Museum of the Blind" and "Rachel and Riley." Learn more under "writing."
Catherine writes in English, speaks French and German fluently, and reads Italian, ancient Greek, and Latin. You can find her at @parispluschien.
Vita in Brief
The record
Education
- PhD, Art History — Northwestern University, 2018
“Between Classicism and Orientalism: The Reception of Ancient Cypriot Sculpture, 1860–1900” - MA, Art History — Northwestern University, 2013
- BA, Art History — University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2010
Professional Appointments
- Associate Director, Strategic Initiatives, Humanities and Arts; Affiliate Faculty, History and Art History, George Mason University, 2026–
- Associate Director, Center for Humanities Research, George Mason University, 2021–26
- Programs Manager, American Library in Paris, 2018–21
Major Fellowships
- Kress Institutional Research Fellow, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris, 2016–18
- Swiny Research Fellow, Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, Nicosia, 2017
- Fulbright Research Fellow, Technische Universität Berlin, 2015–16
Languages
- English — native
- French, German — fluent
- Italian, Attic Greek, Classical Latin — elementary proficiency
