 She taught at several institutions in the United States, including Wellesley College in Massachusetts and as Henri Focillon Professor of Art and Archaeology at Harvard University.She was a senior fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, its deputy director from 1954–55 and 1961–62 and a member of its Board of Scholars.Der Nersessian was also a member of several international institutions such as the British Academy (1975), the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1978) and the Armenian Academy of Sciences (1966).