Corine Schleif studied art history in Marburg, St. Louis (MA, 1980), Berlin, and Bamberg (Dr. phil. 1986). Her work probed the social functions of making, keeping, and destroying art. Her book Donatio et Memoria: Stifter, Stiftungen und Motivationen an Beispielen aus der Lorenzkirche in Nürnberg (1990) considers how donors positioned themselves within spiritual economies while negotiating social and political advantage. Interests in archival sources, postmodern theory, women’s agency, gift-giving cultures, and multisensory experiences came together in her 2009 book, Katerina’s Windows: Donation and Devotion, Art and Music, as Heard and Seen in the Writings of a Birgittine Nun, authored with V. Schier. She has guest-edited Triangulating our Vision (= Different Visions 1, 2008) and Pleasure and Danger in Perception, with R. Newhauser (= The Senses and Society 5, 2010). Schleif’s essays appeared in many anthologies and journals, including the Art Bulletin and Art History. In 2012, she and Schier launched the multimedia study Opening the Geese Book (http://geesebook.asu.edu); she most recently directed the virtual reality project “Extraordinary Sensescapes: The Sensory World of Late Medieval Nuns.”

Schleif’s various projects were funded by the Steinberg Endowment, the Fulbright Commission, Kress Foundation, Getty Grant Program, National Endowment for the Humanities, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Carnegie Humanities Investment Fund, and other institutional and corporate sponsors. She held fellowships at the Institute for Humanities Research at Arizona State and the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel.