a rigorous scholar of cultural history who would go on to a series of academic and university leadership roles, including service as a vice provost at the University of Virginia, provost at the University of Texas at Austin, and president of Stony Brook University. McInnis is a scholar in the cultural history of American Art in the colonial and antebellum South.[2] Her work has focused on the relationship between art and politics in early America, especially on the politics of slavery. Her first book, "The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston," was awarded the Spiro Kostof Award by the Society of Architectural Historians.[5]

Her penultimate book, "Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade" was published in 2011 and awarded the Charles C. Eldredge Book Prize from the Smithsonian American Art Museum[6] as well as the Library of Virginia Literary Award for nonfiction. She recently published, "Educated in Tyranny: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's University." She has also served as a curator,[7] consultant, and advisor to multiple art museums and historic sites.