As editor-in-chief of the Oxford Bibliographies in Art History, Professor Basile Baudez hopes colleagues, students, and scholars across campus will utilize this powerful resource.  

Oxford Bibliographies offers a pathway to accurate and reliable resources for a variety of academic topics including art history.  As the website explains, “Whether an expert in contemporary European art needs to read up on the art of ancient China for a book project or an undergraduate student needs to start a research paper on iconography in Renaissance art, Oxford Bibliographies in Art History will provide a trusted source of selective bibliographic guidance.” 

Professor Basile Baudez discusses Oxford Bibliographies  

What is Oxford Bibliographies and why was it created?

Oxford Bibliographies is a digital tool that provides users with scholarly annotated bibliographies on myriad topics. Written and reviewed by academic experts, every article in the database is an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, containing original commentary and annotations. Topics are arranged by subject areas such as Art History, of which I am the editor-in-chief, but also Architecture Planning and Preservation, African American Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, or Renaissance and Reformation, to name a few.  

Who is the intended user?

Anyone who needs to build a bibliography on a specific topic should start with Oxford Bibliographies, be it a scholar doing research for an article or a book project or a student for a class paper. Oxford Bibliographies is the only tool that offers guidelines and scholarly comments on different sources available on a topic, ranging from online databases to journal papers and monographs.   

What are some examples of suitable research questions?

It can be about a specific topic, such as an artist like Jackson Pollock or a geographic field, like the art history of Ethiopia. Let’s say the student is writing about art during WWII, they could combine references from the article on “Destruction in Art,” “Nazi Looting of Art,” “Art and Propaganda,” and “Art Restitution.”

How has Oxford Bibliographies helped your own work?

I use Oxford Bibliographies both for teaching and for research. It tremendously helped me design syllabi for courses that were not my core specialty and allowed me to explore disciplinary fields that I touch upon in my own scholarship. I find it particularly useful when it comes to absorbing specific field methodologies, such as textile studies or anthropology that I am incorporating in my current book project. 

What does your role as editor entail? Are you looking for feedback?

As editor-in-chief, I identify and hire new editors in charge of developing areas yet not sufficiently covered. Professor Brac de la Perrière (Sorbonne Université) is for example now in charge of Islamic art and architecture. I also commission new articles on specific themes. Professor Rado (BGC) is writing one on Fashion and Costume for example. Finally, I review all the articles that are about to be published to check for their quality, rigor and intellectual honesty. I am always looking for feedback from colleagues, scholars, and students, be it on the quality of the existing articles, on areas that need to be fleshed out, and on specific themes that must be urgently addressed.