Polly Cancro (she/they) has a background in special collections and archives, art history, anthropology, and education. Before joining Bard Graduate Center, she worked at the Morgan Library & Museum, NYU Special Collections, the New York Botanical Garden, The Frick Collection, and Winterthur Museum. She has master’s degrees in the History of Art & Design and Library & Information Science from Pratt Institute, as well as a master’s degree in Education, Culture, & Society from the University of Pennsylvania.

Their interdisciplinary research interests span a range of topics at the intersection of art history, material culture, library and information studies, and social justice. These include an interest in books as objects, with a focus on the social and material production of medieval manuscripts (specifically books of hours); reparative cataloging; information equity; and climate-related threats to cultural heritage material.