Susan Weber Soros
Susan Weber Soros (born 1954) is an American historian. She is the founder and director of the Bard Graduate Center (BGC) for studies in the decorative arts, design history, and material culture affiliated with Bard College.
Early life and career
Weber was born in Brooklyn, New York City. She grew up in the New York area, the daughter of Murray Weber, a manufacturer of shoe accessories, and Iris Weber, a housewife. Her father had emigrated from Russia. Her mother passed on her fondness for the decorative arts. Weber grew up in a non-observant Jewish household; summing up her upbringing, Susan stated: "We were cultural Jews." She attended an Episcopalian high school in Brooklyn and graduated from Barnard College with a degree in art history. She also studied at the Parsons School of Design, and the Royal College of Art, where she earned her Ph.D. degree (1998) with a thesis on the furniture of E. W. Godwin.
In 1991, Soros was turned down for the job of director of graduate education at the Parsons School of Design. So, with $20 million of her husband's money, she started her own school in 1993, establishing the Bard Graduate Center where she is professor of the history of the decorative arts. BGC offers graduate degrees in history of the decorative and applied arts, cultural and design history, garden history, and landscape studies. The Bard Center is one of only three places in the United States where a student can obtain an advanced degree in the decorative arts. The others are the Winterthur Museum program affiliated with the University of Delaware, and the Parsons program.