Dr Sarah James
Liverpool School of Art and Design
Faculty of Arts Professional and Social Studies
Email: S.E.James1@ljmu.ac.uk
I am an art historian, researcher, art writer and curator. For the last twenty years I have worked as an academic researching and teaching contemporary art at UCL (2010-2018), University of Oxford (2008-2010) and as a visiting tutor and fellow at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford (2004-2007); the Courtauld Institute of Art (2002-2007); Cambridge University; the Goethe Universität Frankfurt; the Kunstgeschichte Institut Leipzig Universität, and the Humboldt Universität, Berlin. Most recently I was a Gerda Henkel Professorial Fellow in Frankfurt am Main (2020-21), a Paul Mellon Mid-Career Fellow (2019-20), and an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Fellow (2018).
I have written two major monographs: 'Common Ground: German Photographic Cultures Across the Iron Curtain' (Yale University Press, 2013), and 'Paper Revolutions: An Invisible Avant-Garde' (the MIT Press, 2022). I have published numerous book chapters, peer-reviewed articles, exhibition catalogues and essays. Alongside this, I have published over 75 essays and reviews on contemporary art in the international art press over the last twenty years. I regularly deliver public lectures and talks on my research at museums and galleries, including The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Tate Modern, London; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; The MoMA, New York; Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art; The Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden, and the Albertinum, Dresden. I have been invited to give papers on my work at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, York, Sussex, Nottingham, Leicester de Montfort, Newcastle, University of Colorado Boulder, Rutgers, the Courtauld Institute, the Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Universität Leipzig, and the Freie Universität Berlin.
I have worked as an independent research curator on many projects, and was most recently Senior Curator of Exhibitions at Tate Liverpool (2022-2023), where I curated The Turner Prize, 2022. I led the curatorial team in delivering the special exhibitions and collection displays and in devising future programming. Over the last decade, I have collaborated on curatorial and research projects with many institutions in the UK, Germany and the USA, including HKW Berlin; The Archiv der Avantgarden (Egidio Marzona’s archive of 20th-century avant-garde art and ephemera); the Photographers’ Gallery, London; the Science Museum, London; Reina Sofia Madrid, and The MoMA, New York. The majority of these projects have been embedded in a collective model of research. I recently co-curated a major international loans exhibition with Prof. Sara Blaylock (University of Minnesota, Duluth), titled 'Anti-Social Art' which was shown at the Tweed Museum, Minnesota in 2022, and was accompanied by a catalogue. Like all my curatorial work, this exhibition was research-led and in this instance related to my most recent monograph, focusing on art and activism, ephemeral practices and artist zines, books and portfolios from the former East Germany. My curatorial work, like my writing, is rooted in an interdisciplinary approach, which bridges historical and contemporary practice and research. My research has been recognised by awards from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, the AHRC, the British Academy, the Paul Mellon Centre, and the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. I have also been a scholar in residence at the MoMA, New York.
I received a B.A. in Social and Political Sciences and the History of Art from King’s College, the University of Cambridge in 2001. I was awarded my M.A. with distinction in Contemporary British Art in 2002, and my PhD in the History of Art in 2007, both from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.
I always welcome enquiries from potential postgraduate students keen to research topics relating to contemporary art; documentary practices; ephemeral art practices, including mail art; German art; East German experimental art and collectives; histories and theories of photography; histories of exhibition-making; Eastern European art; the visual cultures, politics and technologies of the Cold War, Marxism and the Frankfurt School thinkers; the interwar avant-garde, and other topics that align with my research interests. Potential applicants should contact me directly to discuss your proposals.
Languages
German
Degrees
2007, Courtauld Institute of Art, United Kingdom, PhD
2002, Courtauld Institute of Art, United Kingdom, MA
2001, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, BA Hons
Academic appointments
Fellowship as a Research Professor, Gerda Henkel Foundation, 2020 - 2022
Mid-Career Fellow, Paul Mellon Centre, 2019 - 2020
Senior Research Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Goethe University Frankfurt, 2019 - 2020
Assoc Prof/Lecturer, University College London, 2010 - 2018
Lecturer, University of Oxford, 2008 - 2010
Director of Studies, Christ Church, History of Art, University of Oxford, 2008 - 2010
Postdoctoral Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Research Fellow, Art History, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2007 - 2008
Visiting Lecturer/Tutor, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, 2004 - 2008
Highlighted publications
James SE. 2022. Paper Revolutions: An Invisible Avant-Garde, The MIT Press, 9780262046565
James SE. 2013. Common Ground: German Photographic Cultures Across the Iron Curtain, Yale University Press,. London and New Haven 9780300184440 Publisher Url
Other
James S. 2024. 'Taking a Stand', Art Monthly, no. 473, :4-16 Publisher Url
James S. 2023. 'Letter from Berlin' Art Monthly, :43-44
James S. 2023. The Liverpool Biennial Art Monthly, :31-31
James S. 2021. Exhibitions Review: Michaela Eichwald's Material Imaginaries Frieze,
James SE. 2021. ‘Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt: An Art Worker at Home with Work’, in DRAWN BETWEEN THE LINES :1, 22-25 Publisher Url
James S. 2020. Exhibitions Review: Frank Walter Frieze,
James S. 2020. Exhibition Reviews: A.R. Penck’s Homecoming Frieze,
James S. 2019. Exhibitions Review: Banu Cennetoglu: What Transforms Information Into Political Action?
James S. 2018. Exhibitions Review: Vasarely, Frankfurt Frieze,
James S. 2017. Exhibitions Review: Folkestone Triennial, UK Frieze,
James S. 2014. Exhibitions Review: Flora Whitely, Berlin
James S. 2013. Exhibitions Review: The Whole Earth & 1968, Berlin Frieze,
James S. 2013. Exhibitions Review: Mass Observation, London Aperture -New York-,
James S. 2013. Exhibitions Review: Mishka Henner, Liverpool Frieze,
James S. 2013. Exhibitions Review: Karl Blossleldt, London Aperture -New York-,
James S. 2013. Exhibitions Review: Edith Tudor-Hart, Vienna Camera Austria,
James S. 2013. Exhibition Review: Artist Placement Group, London Frieze,
James S. 2012. Exhibitions Review: Brighton Photo Biennial 2012 Frieze,
James S. 2011. Exhibitions Review: Four Artists 4x4, London
James S. 2011. Exhibitions Review: Carlfriedrich Claus, Berlin Frieze,
James S. 2010. Exhibitions Review: The Liverpool Biennial Frieze,
James S. 2010. Exhibitions Review: Cold War Cultures Art Monthly,
James S. 2009. Exhibitions Review: Supportico Lopez, Berlin Frieze,
James S. 2009. Exhibitions Review: Source Codes, Berlin Art Monthly,
James S. 2009. Exhibitions Review: Micol Assael, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2009. Exhibitions Review: Oliver Richon, London Frieze,
James S. 2009. Exhibitions Review: Kasia Fudakowski, Berlin Frieze, Publisher Url
James S. 2009. Exhibitions Review: Notation, Berlin Frieze, Publisher Url
James S. 2008. Exhibitions Review: Marco Mieran, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2008. Exhibitions Review: Apartment Art, Berlin Art Monthly,
James S. 2008. Exhibitions Review: Semantic Dislocations, Artistic Translations, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2008. Exhibitions Review: Berlin Biennial Nights Art Monthly,
James S. 2008. Exhibitions Review: Letter from Berlin Art Monthly,
James S. 2008. Exhibitions Review: Georg Baselitz/Jonathan Meese, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2007. Exhibitions Review: Jessica Rankin, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2007. Exhibitions Review: The Real Thing, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2007. Exhibitions Review: Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2007. Exhibitions Review: The Berlinale Film Festival Art Review,
James S. 2007. Exhibitions Review: Translation: Text as Image, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2007. Badiou: Polemics
James S. 2006. Exhibitions Review: Beyond Cinema, Berlin Art Review,
James S. 2006. Exhibitions Review: Berlin Round-up Art Monthly,
James S. 2006. Exhibitions Review: Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky Art Monthly,
James S. 2006. Exhibitions Review: Diemantas Narkevicius, London Art Monthly,
James S. 2005. Exhibitions Review: The British Art Show 6 Art Monthly,
James S. 2005. Exhibitions Review: Crisp/Tickle/Warnell, London Art Monthly,
James S. 2005. Exhibitions Review: The Rudiments of Ornamental Composition, London Art Monthly,
James S. 2004. Exhibitions Review; John Bock, London Art Monthly,
James SE. '1 Million Roses for Angela Davis’ Frieze, Publisher Url
James S. Interview on War Primer II: Broomberg and Chanarin Photoworks, 17 :22-28
Journal article
James S. 2023. The Crisis in Art Education Art Monthly, :10-13 Publisher Url
James SE. 2022. ‘Stefan Lorant’s Lilliputian Look-Alikes: Cultivating an Optical Imagination’ Fotogeschichte-Themenheft: Zirkulierende Bilder. Fotografien in Zeitschriften, :14-24
James SE. 2021. Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Man and Machine’: Rethinking the Cold War Traffic in Photographs, against the Grain Photography and Culture, 14 :135-154 DOI Publisher Url
James SE. 2021. ‘Yael Bartana: The Impossible, Possible:’ Art Monthly, :1-7
James SE. 2020. 'Anti-Anti-Semitism or the Alt Right?' Art Monthly, :7-11
James SE. 2020. 'Sickness & Solidarity’ Art Monthly, :6-10
James S. 2019. What are Museums For? Frieze,
James S. 2019. Brecht's War Primer Aperture Photobook, 016
James S. 2019. Laurie Parsons’s Quiet Exit from Art Frieze,
James S. 2019. 'As Germany Celebrates 30 Years After the Berlin Wall, What Did ‘Freedom’ Really Mean?' Frieze, Author Url
James SE. 2017. Hermann Glöckner: Waste as a Figure of Thought? New German Critique, 44 :169-203 DOI Publisher Url
James SE. 2016. ‘Not Yet’ Materialized: Carlfriedrich Claus's ‘Talking Papers’ Art History, 39 :796-819 DOI Publisher Url
James S. 2015. Brecht Redux Art Monthly, :6-10
James SE. 2014. Radical Biographies Oxford Art Journal, 37 :327-333 DOI Publisher Url
James S. 2013. 'A Family Affair: Photography, the Cold War & the Domestic Sphere' Photoworks Annual, :166-177 Author Url
James S. 2013. The Photobook: From Talbot to Ruscha and Beyond’, New Formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics, 78
James SE. 2012. A Post-Fascist Family of Man? Cold War Humanism, Democracy and Photography in Germany Oxford Art Journal, 35 :315-336 DOI Publisher Url
James S. 2012. The Worker Photography Movement (1926–1939): Essays and Documents History of Photography, 36 :457-458 DOI Publisher Url
James SE. 2012. A Socialist Realist Sander? Comparative Portraiture as a Marxist Model in the German Democratic Republic Grey Room, 47 :38-59 DOI Publisher Url
JAMES SE. 2009. SUBJECT, OBJECT, MIMESIS: THE AESTHETIC WORLD OF THE BECHERS' PHOTOGRAPHY Art History, 32 :874-893 DOI Publisher Url
James S. 2009. Photography's Theoretical Blind Spots: Looking at the German Paradigm Photographies, 2 :255-270 DOI Publisher Url
James S. 2008. What Can We Do With Photography? Art Monthly,
James S. 2002. 'Incorporating Art’, The New Left Review, :154-160
James SE, James S. 'House of Dada: Erwin Blumenfeld’ Frieze DE, :84-91
James S. Radical Archives Frieze DE,
James S. Burkhard von Harder’s Archive Mirror Photoworks, 18 :4-17
James S. Maggie, Maggie, Maggie Photoworks, :70-79
James S. Behind the Theoretical Iron Curtain Art Monthly, :7-10
James S. The `Truth About Photography? Art Monthly, :1-4
James S. A Critical Vanguard? Back in the USSR Art Monthly, :11-14
Books (authored)
James SE. 2022. Paper Revolutions: An Invisible Avant-Garde, The MIT Press, 9780262046565
James SE. 2013. Common Ground: German Photographic Cultures Across the Iron Curtain, Yale University Press,. London and New Haven 9780300184440 Publisher Url
Chapters
James SE. 2022. ‘Better Active Than Radioactive: Three Speculative Materialist Stories in and Around the GDR’, Anti-Social Art: Experimental Practices in Late East Germany, :11-15 University of Minnesota Publisher Url
James SE. 2021. 'Werner Büttner - Vom Zeitalter der Götter bis zu den guten alten Tagen des Kalten Krieges und danach: A Rock Caught between two Hard Places’ Werner Büttner, Last Lecture Show, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Oct 2021-Jan 2022 :13-30 Author Url
James S. 2021. ‘Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt: Eine Kunstarbeiterin zu Hause bei der Arbeit’, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt Gerhard-Altenbourg-Preis 2021 9783954986194
James S. 2020. 'Closing Reflections', along with Ronnie Close, Catherine Grant, and Sandra Plummer 'Photography Reframed New Visions in Contemporary Photographic Culture' :234-240 Routledge 9781000213492
James SE. 2020. 'Photography’s Conflicting Modernisms and Modernities’ A Companion to Photography :203-242 John Wiley & Sons 9781405195843 Publisher Url
James S. 2019. 'Filmic Excursions to the Bottom of the Sea (and Back Again): Karen Russo’s Futurological Archaeology’ Karen Russo, Haus Atlantis :7-30 Künstlerhauser Worpswede Publisher Url
James S. 2018. Edmund Kesting’s Polyphonic Portraits & the Abstract Face of the Socialist Self in East Germany’ The Ethics of Seeing Photography and Twentieth-Century German History Berghahn Books 9781785337291 Author Url
James S. 2017. Thomas Ruff: Portraying Modernity Thomas Ruff :176-187 Whitechapel Gallery 9780854882601
James S. 2015. ‘Conversations: German and British Contexts’ Not Yet: On The Remaking of Documentary and the Critique of Modernism :43-93 Reina Sofia Museum 978-84-8026-508-9 Author Url
James S. 2013. 'Maggie and the Fairytale of the Free Market' Chateau Despair :56-63 9780957427204
James S. 2013. ‘Making an Ugly World Beautiful: Morality & the Aesthetics of the Aftermath’ Memory of Fire Images of War and the War of Images :114-129 Photoworks 9781903796498 Publisher Url
Book review
James S. 2017. Zervigon’s Germany & Photography Source Magazine,
James S. 2014. Radical Biographies: Andres Mario Zervigon and Michael White Oxford Art Journal, 3 :327-333
James S. 2012. Exhibitions Review: Bauhaus - Art as Life, London no. 149,
James S. 2008. Boris Groys: Art Power Art Review,
James S. 2007. Blake Stimson’s Collectivism After Modernism & The Pivot of the Word
James S. 2006. Frederic Schwartz: Blind Spots Art Monthly,
Exhibition
James SE. The Turner Prize 2022 Publisher Url
James SE. Anti-Social Art: Experimental Practices in Late East Germany Author Url
Highlighted activities
Media Coverage:
International, National and local TV, radio and print coverage of the Turner Prize 2022, which I curated at Tate Liverpool 2022
www.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com
artreview.com
. 2022
Professional activities
Conference presentation:
'Radioactive Art: East Germany, Uranium and Eco-Feminist Futures', Great Transformation of Nature: Extractivism, Terraforming and Monoculturalization in Global Socialisms, UCL, https://sava.earth/. 2024
Settling Scores & Death by Disaster Capitalism, Historical Materialism, SOAS, London, Oral presentation. 2023
‘The Studio Refashioned as a Postcard’,, Positionen zum Künstleratelier in der DDR’, Philipps-Universität Marburg, June 2019., conference paper - talk. 2019
Performing the Page, Photography, Writing, Letterpress,, Letterpress, Phillips-Universität Marburg,, presentation, oral. 2019
The Abstract Face of Photography: Rodchenko, Moholy-Nagy and their Legacies’, Abstract Art & Society,, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, presentation/lecture. 2015
Edmund Kesting & The Abstract Face of Conformity in East Germany, Eastern European Photography, Archaeology of Photography Foundation Warsaw, Tate Modern, lecture. 2013
Picturing LIFE in Cold War Germany, The Ethics of Seeing: German Photography during the Cold War,, German Historical Institute London, oral presentation/lecture. 2013
Hermann Glöckner and Eva Hesse: Waste as a Figure of Thought’, Drawing-Sculpture-Painting: Eva Hesse in Europe 1965, UCL, oral presentation/lecture. 2013
Ghosts in the Machine, Newport History of Photography: 100 Years, Newport University,, oral presentation, lecture. 2012
Ghosts in the Machine: Cartier-Bresson’s Corporate Humanism’, Historical Materialism,, SOAS, Oral presentation. 2012
The Family of Man’s German Images, Viewing and Reading the Photographs of The Family of Man, University of Durham, oral presentation. 2012
A Socialist Realist Sander: When the Individual Ceases To Exist,, Historical Materialism, SOAS, oral paper. 2011
External PGR examinations performed:
Birkbeck, PhD, Thesis Title: The Berlin Wall: A Material and Psychic History. 2024
Courtauld Institute of Art, London, PhD, New Soviet Man or Holy Fool. 2017
Courtauld Institute, London University, PhD, From Bayreuth to Burkina Faso: Christoph Schlingensief's Opera. 2016
Courtauld Institute of Art, PhD, A-Ys Magazine and its International Context. 2015
Courtauld Institute of Art, PhD, Artistic Collectives in the 1960s. 2013
University of Oxford, PhD, Contemporary Art and Fan Culture. 2011
Public engagement:
Public talk or lecture, general public and students, plus recorded and online, invited speaker and participant, Richard Attenborough Centre, Sussex University, Curating the Turner Prize, public roundtable with three Turner Prize curators on the occasion of the 2023 Turner Prize, https://www.attenboroughcentre.com/events/4896/curating-the-turner-prize-turner-prize-2023-at-towner-eastbourne-x-university-of-sussex. 2023
Conference organisation:
Against Monstrous Futures, HM, London 2023, co-organised double-panel with Prof TJ Demos (UCSanta Cruz) with invited speakers Rizvana Bradley (Dept Film and Media, UC Berkeley) ; Prof Anselm Franke (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste Zürcher Hochschule der Künste); Prof Tahani Nadim; (Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Humboldt Berlin) Prof Susan Schuppli (Forensic Archt, Goldsmiths), https://www.scribd.com/document/695516129/HM-2023-Programme. 2023
Socialist, Ephemeral, and Globalized: New Directions in the Study of German Art, College Arts Association, Chicago, https://www.collegeart.org/programs/conference/conference2022. 2022
Panel: Art after 1945: At Home or Homeless, AAH, Brighton, 2019, https://forarthistory.org.uk/conference/2019-annual-conference/. 2019
CSCA Annual Lecture, Carrie Lambert Beattie, UCL. 2017
Photography and the Left, Historical Materialism, SOAS 2013, https://www.versobooks.com/events/762-historical-materialism-conference-2013. 2013
Documentary's Future-Pasts, Historical Materialism, SOAS, 2012, https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/ninth-annual-conference. 2012
Archive as Strategy, Calvert 22 and UCL, https://www.afterall.org/events/east-art-map-history-is-not-given.please-help-to-construct-it/. 2012
Image & Object: Thinking Photography, University of Oxford. 2010
Fotografie und die Ästhetik der Objektivität, at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, June 2009., http://www.kunstgeschichte.hu-berlin.de/2009/06/symposium-fotografie-und-die-aesthetik-der-objektivitaet/. 2009
Theory as an Object, Courtauld Institute of Art, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3397652. 2003
Media Coverage:
International, National and local TV, radio and print coverage of the Turner Prize 2022, which I curated at Tate Liverpool 2022
www.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com
artreview.com
Research Grants Awarded:
Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Professorial Fellowship, The Militant & the Mainstream, Grant value (£): 200,000, Duration of research project: two years. 2020
Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Visiting Professorship, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Militant & Mainstream, Grant value (£): 20,000. 2019
Paul Mellon Centre, Mid Career Fellowship, The Militant and the Mainstream, Grant value (£): 30,000, Duration of research project: 12 months. 2019
British Academy, Paper Revolutions, research grant, Grant value (£): 10,000, Duration of research project: 6 months. 2018
Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Paper Revolutions, Visiting Professorship, Leipzig, Grant value (£): 20,000, Duration of research project: 4 months. 2016
AHRC, Early Career Fellowship: Common Ground, Grant value (£): 75,000, Duration of research project: 12 months. 2010
Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cold War Photography, Grant value (£): 70,000, Duration of research project: 18 months. 2007
AHRC, Negative Aesthetics: PhD Project, Grant value (£): 48,000, Duration of research project: five years. 2003
Other invited event:
‘Paper Revolutions’, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Universität Leipzig, Invited by Prof. Martin Schieder, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Universität Leipzig to give a lecture presenting my research as part of my visiting Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. 2019
Between Mappen & Maquettes: Researching Gloeckner & Schieferdecker's Bits and Pieces': Invited Lecture and Research Seminar, Dresden, Invited by the Kupferstich Kabinett, Dresden to give a lecture as part of their series on their East German collection.. 2019
Performing Portraiture in the GDR: Staging Selves and Social Gists, University of Oxford, Invited by Prof. Geraldine Johnson to give a public lecture as part of the Photography Seminar, Series University of Oxford, June 2018.. 2018
August Sander’s Social Portraiture: A Reactionary Revolutionary?’, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, Invited to give a public lecture as part of series ‘History, Society, and the Power of Creativity: Five German Artists’, as part of the series ‘Showcasing Art History’.. 2018
‘Rethinking the Cold War Traffic in Photographs: Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Man & Machine’, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, Invited by Prof. Julian Stallabrass to give a lecture as part of the Photography Research Photography Series.. 2018
In conversation with the artist Lisa Barnard, University of Brighton, Invited to do an in conversation with the artist Lisa Barnard, Brighton Photo Fringe,. 2015
Images on the Run, University of York, Invited to give a lecture on my new research project as part of the research seminar series within the art history dept,. 2014
Ghosts in the Machine, University of Sussex, Invited to give a lecture on my new research at the University of Sussex ar The Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies. 2014
In conversation with Alexander Kluge, UCL, I was invited to do an in conversation with the film maker and theorist, Alexander Kluge. 2014
‘Bernd & Hilla Becher: Re-enchanting the Everyday & Resisting Reification, London College of Communication, invited to give a lecture to art and photography department. 2014
German Photography: Humanism & a Postfascist Family of Man, Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona, Invited to give a lecture on my research by Jorge Ribalta.. 2014
Ideologies in Motion - Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Corporate Humanism, University of Nottingham, Invited to give a lecture on my research at the Centre for the Study of Political Ideologies. 2014
A Postfascist Family of Man Karl Pawek’s Transformed World: Mapping Cold War Exhibitions, University of Colorado, Boulder, I was invited by Prof Patrick Greaney (German and Slavic Languages dept) to give a lecture as part of his History and Photography event. 2013
Karl Pawek’s Postfascist Family of Man, University of Leicester De Montfort, Invited by Professor Elizabeth Edwards to give a lecture on my research.. 2013
Common Ground, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, I was invited by Prof Benjamin Buchloh (History of Art, Harvard) to give a lecture as part of his visiting fellowship series of lectures at the Freie. 2013
In Conversation with Renzo Martens, UCL, The Institute for Human Activities, Sotheby's and UCL. 2013
In conversation with the artist Mishka Henner, Photographers’ Gallery, London, I was invited to be in conversation with the artist as part of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. 2013
A Postfascist Family of Man: Exhibiting the Cold War?, Courtauld Institute of Art, I was invited to give a paper on my research as part of the research seminar series on modern and contemporary art. 2012
In Conversation with Phil Collins, UCL, Organised an in convo with the artist at UCL, Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art. 2011
A Socialist Realist Sander? ‘Face of Our Time in the GDR, University of Edinburgh and National Galleries of Scotland, I was invited to present my research at a conference held on the occasion of an exhibition of August Sander. 2011
'Mutation/Migration’, Expanded Conceptualism, Tate Modern, London, Invited to chair a session for the above public conference. 2011
Socialist Postmodernism? The Dialectical Photography of Evelyn Richter, History of Art Department, Oxford University,, I was invited to give a paper at the research seminar series. 2009
Photography Between Seeing and Knowing, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, Invited to open the series ‘Dev/Stop/Fix'. 2009
The Ghosts of Modernism: Photography on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall, German Embassy London, Invited to give a paper as part of an event to celebrate the Do Not Refreeze exhibition. 2009
Valuing the Subject, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, Invited to give a paper as part of 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: How We Value Art Today'. 2005
Other Professional Activity:
External manuscript reviewer, Routledge. 2017
External Manuscript Reviewer, Bloomsbury. 2016
External book manuscript reviewer for Manchester University Press. 2014
External journal manuscript reviewer for Art History. 2009
Jury Member for EIDOS curatorial and contemporary art competition, A Priori: Contemporary Histories, Kiev. 2008
External committees:
Member of the Teaching and Learning Committee, Courtauld Institute of Art, Invited to sit on the committee to assess and review present and new syllabi and pedagogical practice across undergraduate and postgraduate degree programme. 2014
Editorial boards:
Object, Advisory Board Member. 2010
Immediations, Advisory Editorial Board Member. 2009
Membership of professional bodies:
Academy Member, for Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. 2010