Jean Wetzel to Retire in Spring 2018

Jean Wetzel announced she will retire in spring 2018.

Wetzel has been a professor of art history at Cal Poly since 1996, and has been beloved and admired by her students for her passion and commitment to teaching. She earned a doctorate from the University of Kansas in 1991, with a specialty in Chinese painting of the Yuan and Song dynasties and a secondary specialty in European and American painting of the early modern era. Prior to Cal Poly, she taught at the University of Puget Sound, the University of Kansas and worked as a graphic artist and editor for an engineering consulting firm. Her research and publications have focused on the interaction of professional and amateur artists and collectors in the Yuan dynasty, women artists of the courtesan class in the Ming dynasty, imagery of women in Buddhist art, and the work of contemporary Chinese women painters.

Wetzel’s contributions to the Art and Design Department include introducing the first courses in Asian art history, as well as a course focused on feminist theory and women artists in Europe and the U.S. She played a leading role in creating the art history minor in 2007, and she has contributed to the Asian studies and women and gender studies minors at Cal Poly. Wetzel also taught in the London Study program twice, in 1999 and in 2003. She was honored as Teacher of the Year by the College of Liberal Arts Student Council in 1999. She will retire in spring of 2018, and everyone in the department wishes her all the best in her future endeavors.