About

Mariët Westermann, Vice Chancellor 

Mariët Westermann joined NYU Abu Dhabi as Vice Chancellor, Chief Executive, and Professor of Arts and Humanities in 2019.

Dr. Westermann previously served as Executive Vice President at the Mellon Foundation, where she oversaw all grantmaking programs and launched initiatives that strengthen liberal

arts education, research and graduate education in the arts and humanities, and access, diversity, and equity in universities and cultural institutions.

Prior to joining the Mellon Foundation, Westermann was a member of the faculty at NYU, first as director and Paulette Goddard Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts and then as the first provost of NYU Abu Dhabi. Before joining NYU in 2002, she was associate director of research at the Clark Art Institute. From 1995 to 2001, she was on the faculty at Rutgers University.

Westermann earned her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, at Williams College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her master’s and PhD degrees from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts.

Her principal area of scholarship is the art of the Netherlands. She has published extensively in the field, including the widely read A Worldly Art: The Dutch Republic 1585–1718; Rembrandt – Art and Ideas; and Anthropologies of Art. She speaks and writes frequently on higher education, the humanities, cultural heritage, and Gardens of Eden, and has made significant curatorial contributions to major museum exhibitions.

Westermann has received fellowships, honors, and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Philosophical Society, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Clark Art Institute, College Art Association, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. She serves on the boards of ALIPH - The International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Zones, the Educational Testing Service, and the Rijksmuseum, and chairs the Scholar Rescue Fund of the Institute of International Education. In Abu Dhabi she is a board member of AmCham Abu Dhabi and the US-UAE Business Council.

Vice Chancellor Westermann and her husband Charles Pardoe have four children who live and work in the US and the UK.