Julianna Sandholm-Bark Promoted to Full Professor at Webster Geneva

Dr. Ryan Guffey, from left, Julianna Sandholm-Bark with her promotion certificate, and Eric Click

Julianna Sandholm-Bark was recently promoted to full professor in recognition of her longstanding contributions to Webster as a teacher, scholar and program leader. Since beginning her teaching career at Webster Geneva in 2008, she has built a sustained record of teaching, research, service and academic leadership.

She served as coordinator of the Global Citizenship Program (GCP) from 2011 and has led the program since 2017. Her responsibilities have encompassed curriculum development, advising, assessment, academic quality, accreditation, faculty recruitment and development and co-curricular programming. She has supported the implementation of outcomes-based assessment and faculty onboarding, while also coordinating Webster Geneva's work during both the Swiss AAQ accreditation and Higher Learning Commission reaccreditation processes. 

Sandholm-Bark has taught more than 80 course sections across first-year learning, art history, the art market, art crime, writing and Keystone seminars. She has designed 10 different first-year seminar themes and numerous signature art history courses incorporating emerging topics such as digital art, social media and generative AI. She treats museums, galleries, art fairs, cities and cultural institutions as extensions of the classroom. Since 2014, she has led 11 course visits to Art Basel, as well as study trips to Paris, Lausanne, Zurich and cultural institutions throughout Geneva. Students have transformed these experiences into publications, exhibitions, podcasts, videos, fieldwork projects and conference-style presentations.

She also founded and led Meet the Artist from 2018 to 2023. The initiative produced around 70 public events and an archive of more than 35 podcast episodes, connecting students and faculty with Geneva's artistic community and external partners. She has curated exhibitions, organized public conversations and supervised student-led creative and civic projects. Her sustained contribution to campus cultural programming was formally recognized in 2025 through her appointment as co-director of Creativity and Innovation Days.

Sandholm-Bark's research examines how cultural value becomes visible, credible and teachable. Beginning with her early scholarship on portraiture, authorship and visual legitimacy, her work has expanded to encompass art markets, artist interviews, curatorial practice and experiential pedagogy. She has published peer-reviewed articles and conference papers and presented her research in international academic settings. Most recently, her scholarship has examined the ways in which experiential and curatorial teaching can strengthen cultural literacy, critical inquiry and student agency.

Her research is closely connected to her teaching and institutional leadership at Webster. Projects such as Meet the Artist, field-based courses at Art Basel and artgenève, Creativity and Innovation Days and the GCP have provided the foundations for externally disseminated scholarship on educational design, cultural interpretation and practice-led pedagogy. She has also represented Webster through GCP Collaboratories, Global Leadership Academy activities, Teaching Festival panels, international conferences, faculty-development initiatives and professional meetings. In addition to her publications and presentations, she contributes to the wider academic community through peer review and scholarly service.

She is currently developing an edited volume on experiential and arts-based learning in higher education. The volume brings together perspectives on how creative, participatory and practice-led approaches can enrich teaching across disciplines. She is also preparing a paper on the growing visibility of African and African diaspora art in Switzerland for an international conference in London. This research considers the roles of museums, educational initiatives, galleries and art fairs in shaping Switzerland's evolving cultural landscape.