Is Associate Chair of the Department of History of Art and professor of African and African Diaspora art history and visual culture. He is also a curator and art critic. Prior to joining Cornell faculty, Hassan taught in the Department of History of Art at the State University of New York at Buffalo, the Department of History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Department of Art History and General Studies in the College of Fine and Applied Art in Khartoum, Sudan. He is founder and editor of NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, and serves as consulting editor for African Arts and Atlantica.

Hassan is currently working on a book manuscript entitled, Khartoum School: The Making of the Modern Art Movement in Sudan.