Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt
received her PhD in Fine Arts (now History of Art and Architecture) from Harvard in 1981. She was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard from 1978-81. She has been on the faculty at Penn since 1982 and has also taught at Bryn Mawr College, the University of Delaware, and the University of Heidelberg. She is currently professor of East Asian Art and curator of Chinese art at the Museum.

Steinhardt's wide-ranging research interests in East Asian art and architecture are focused on architecture and city planning in China and Japan before the 14th century and the ways in which Chinese art forms impact art of non-Chinese peoples at China's northern borders. She has written Chinese Traditional Architecture (1984), Chinese Imperial City Planning (1990; 2nd edition 1999), Liao Architecture (1997), and 3000Years of Chinese Architecture (2001), as well as more than 35 scholarly articles. Her current research is focused on East Asian architecture of the 3rd through 6th centuries. Steinhardt has been the recipient of grants from the NEH, ACLS, SSRC, APS, Getty Foundation, Korea Foundation, and Graham Foundation.