Derrick R. Cartwright was born in San Francisco and studied art history at UC Berkeley (AB 1984), UCLA (MA 1988), and the University of Michigan (Ph.D. 1994). He has taught courses at the University of San Diego, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, Columbia University's Program at Reid Hall (Paris), and Dartmouth College. His museum experience is broad and includes work at The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, as well as directorial experience at the Musee d'Art Americain Giverny, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the Seattle Art Museum. Cartwright has lectured throughout the world and published on a variety of topics, ranging from eighteenth-century American history painting, nineteenth-century artists' colonies, and twentieth-century photography to contemporary debates in museum culture. He is currently working on a book about decisive change in twentieth-century American art. Since the fall of 2012, he has been the Director of University Galleries and Professor of Practice in the Department of Art, Architecture + Art History at the University of San Diego.
