Rate My Professor Daniel Weiss

Daniel Weiss is the Homewood Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of History of Art. He earned a BA in psychology from George Washington University in 1979, an MA in medieval and modern art from Johns Hopkins University in 1982, an MBA from the Yale School of Management in 1985, and a PhD in western medieval and Byzantine art from Johns Hopkins University in 1992. Joining the Johns Hopkins art history faculty in 1993, he advanced to full professor and department chair within six years. From 2002 to 2005, he served as James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. He then held presidencies at Lafayette College from 2005 to 2013 and Haverford College from 2013 to 2015. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he was president from 2015 to 2017 and president and chief executive officer from 2017 to 2023, during which he balanced the budget, set attendance records exceeding seven million visitors annually, and advanced diversity initiatives.

Weiss returned to Johns Hopkins in 2023 as Homewood Professor of the Humanities and senior advisor to the provost for the arts, chairing the Taskforce on the Arts and leading the Office for the Arts. His scholarly work focuses on the art of the Crusader era, medieval pilgrimage, Byzantium, and the art and architecture of Romanesque and Gothic Europe. Key publications include Art and Crusade in the Age of Saint Louis (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Why the Museum Matters (Yale University Press, 2022), In That Time: Michael O’Donnell and the Tragic Era of Vietnam (PublicAffairs, 2019), and Remaking College: Innovation and the Liberal Arts (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013, co-author). He has received three teaching awards from Johns Hopkins University, fellowships from Harvard University, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Van Courtlandt Elliott Award from the Medieval Academy of America, and honorary degrees. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he serves on boards including the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Library of America. In late 2025, he was appointed director and CEO of the Philadelphia Art Museum effective December 2025, continuing part-time at Johns Hopkins.