Amy Werbel serves as Professor of the History of Art at the State University of New York-Fashion Institute of Technology. For the past twenty years, her research has concentrated on censorship at the intersections of law and culture, and particularly in relationship to freedom of artistic and sexual expression. Her most recent book, Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock (Columbia University Press, 2018), was awarded the 2019 Peter C. Rollins Book Prize of the Northeast Popular and American Culture Association. Werbel's previous book publications include Thomas Eakins: Art, Medicine, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia (Yale University Press, 2007), which was designated an “Outstanding Academic Title” by Choice magazine. Professor Werbel has lectured nationally and internationally on the damaging impact of censorship not only on artistic expression but also on pluralism and democracy more generally, including during two appointments as a Fulbright Scholar to China (2011-2012) and to the United Kingdom (2019-2020). She was honored to receive the 2018-2019 State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship.

Dr. Werbel has been awarded fellowships and scholarships by numerous institutions, including the Frick Center for the History of Collecting, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and her MA and PhD degrees at Yale University.