Rankin completed a PhD titled Englishmen on the Acropolis: an historiography of the Parthenon, c. 1750-1850 at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1978.
She was head of the department, and chair of the exhibitions committee for the university's Gus Fisher Gallery.
[2] Rankin's research focuses on neglected South African artists, and sculpture and print-making.
Rankin has written a biography of South African artist Peter Clarke, published in 2012, along with retrospective exhibitions at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, in collaboration with Hobbs, and in Johannesburg.
[3] In 2012 Rankin was a visiting fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, where she worked with Prof. Dr. Rolf Schneider on the design of the frieze of the Voortrekker Monument.