By Mackenzie Grizzard | Staff Writer
The 2025 Cornelia Marschall Smith Professor of the Year is Dr. Heidi J. Hornik, professor and chair of the Art and Art History Department at Baylor.
This award recognizes faculty members that excel in areas of teaching, research and service.
Hornik joined Baylor’s Art and Art History department in 1990 and has served as the department chair for the past four years. Besides teaching several advanced art history courses in Italian Renaissance and Western Art, Hornik is also a globally-renowned scholar and author.
“[Hornik] has now served as chair of the department of Art and Art History for four years, while somehow maintaining her commitment to excellence in the classroom and through research,” Dr. Lee Nordt, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences said.
As Hornik reflects on her career at Baylor, she remains appreciative of the opportunities her department and the Baylor community have brought her.
“The Cornelia Marschall Smith Professor of the Year is a very competitive award because it really does represent a person who excels in all three areas –– teaching, research on an international level and service to the university,” Hornik said.
With 35 years of publication, scholarly research and teaching under her belt, Hornik’s dedication to Baylor did not go unnoticed.
“I think being at Baylor, especially with this Christian mission, is an honor itself,” Hornik said. “But to also receive [this] recognition really solidifies my thoughts that this was the place I should be –– and that God wanted me to be –– for my career.”
Throughout a long and notable career, Hornik remains grateful to Baylor and reflects on how it has changed throughout the years.
“It makes me very appreciative staying at Baylor for 35 years,” Hornik said. “I’ve watched Baylor evolve in so many positive ways, and I look forward to continuing [my career] at a place that recognizes the importance of teaching, research and service.”
Hornik started her education at Cornell University as a civil engineer. By her junior year as an undergraduate, she began working at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art on campus, spurring her interest in the arts, she said.
“As I got into more specific disciplines [and] sciences, I wasn’t sure where my interest lied,” Hornik said. “So I thought maybe architecture, and that lead me to art history.”
Throughout her career, Hornik has authored several publications, served on academic committees and even lectured and researched all across Europe.
“Numerous research book publications and journal articles have garnered an international reputation for Dr. Hornik in the burgeoning field of religion and the arts, demonstrated by her frequent travels to Italy as a scholar and consultant among the world’s best in the field,” Nordt said.
As a travel aficionado herself, the best piece of advice she could give her students is to travel as much as they can, she said.
“Even still today I travel a lot,” Hornik said. “When I bring back those experiences –– especially in this case with art –– back to the classroom, it makes it real and encourages other [students] to experience new places and people.”
Hornik emphasizes a varied classroom environment, complete with readings, illustrations and even physical art. “Dissemination of information,” she said, provides a fresh classroom experience for her students.
“My classroom is always an exchange,” Hornik said. “I might give up some information and ask for a response or have a reading [with] people divided into smaller groups.”
With this emphasis on information exchange in the classroom, Hornik hopes her students will feel more comfortable thinking critically when it comes to art and feel comfortable expressing those ideas.
“Personally, I think thinking critically is a fundamental tool of art history because it asks you to combine philosophy, religion, literature, history and music all through art,” Hornik said. “I think it’s a wonderful way to go through the world.”
