Dr. Elizabeth Wiatr

WIATR, Elizabeth Dr. Elizabeth Wiatr, a longtime Los Angeles resident, died November 11, 2008 at her home in Boise, Idaho. She was 48. She had been battling a brain tumor for nearly three years. Liz was born June 18, 1960 in Chicago, Illinois to Robert and Sandra Wiatr. She attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The University of Illinois and The California Institute of the Arts (M.F.A. Photography) before obtaining her Ph.D. in American cultural history and critical theory from the University of California, Irvine in 2003. She taught at UCI and the Southern California Institute of Architecture before going to Boise State University in the fall of 2005 to teach art history and visual culture. Liz was currently at work on her book, "Seeing American: Visual Education and the Making of Modern Observers," which examines the visual education movement in the early part of the 20th century. Her scholarship explored the way photographs and films convey particular forms of knowledge and modes of seeing, thinking and being and help forge social identities in the process. In 1993, she completed the experimental documentary film "Chapbook of the Non-Eminent," which she described as "a bittersweet love poem to Los Angeles, a city of tremendous contradictions, where appearances and actuality are often at odds." This film recently screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Viennale Film Festival in Vienna. Liz lived life fully every day. She was someone whose curiosity about the world led her to find adventure and excitement at any opportunity. Biking was her primary mode for exploring the world; she enjoyed cycling and camping in the deserts of Southern California and the Catskill mountains in New York. It was there that she found inspiration and peace of mind. Elizabeth is survived by her mother Sandra, her sister Diane, her brother Robert, her partner of 16 years Thomas Lewis, and their much-adored daughter Amalia. Friends, family and co-workers are invited to attend the memorial, which will be held in her honor at 220 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles, 90004 on Saturday, December 13th, at 3:30 p.m. Memorial gifts in honor of Dr. Elizabeth Wiatr can be made under her name to UCLA Neuro-Oncology at (310) 825-5074.