Paula is an art historian, working in the areas of Contemporary Art and Visual Culture as well as in the art of the Italian Renaissance. She has published on a wide variety of topics, including the photography of Thomas Struth, reality television and notions of surveillance, non-linear and experimental music and the art of Michelangelo, Titian, Veronese and Giulio Romano.

Paula lived abroad in London for six years, where she taught at the Open University and Birkbeck College and hold or have held teaching positions at such institutions as the Rhode Island School of Design, Salem State University, Florida Atlantic University and the University of California, San Diego.