Her research has been supported by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Henry Moore Foundation, the US Capitol Historical Society, the Winterthur Museum and Library, and the Huntington Museum and Library. She recently curated an exhibition on William Henry Rinehart’s studio practices and labor at The Walters Art Museum.

She has contributed to several museum collections and exhibition catalogs, including the Maryland Historical Society, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is a co-author of the textbook, Understanding Artforms in Our World. Her scholarship has also appeared in American Art. She lectures at local art institutions and historical societies, and currently serves on the Governor’s Commission on Maryland Military Monuments. Carson holds a PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and an MA in Art History from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.