Visual Art & Art History
Natasha Bissonauth
she/they
Assistant Professor
EDUCATION
Ph.D Art History - Cornell UniversityAREAS OF EXPERTISE
Contemporary Art and Visual CulturesContemporary Global Art
Diaspora
South Asia
Indenture
Art Theory and Aesthetics
Queer Theory
Feminist Studies
Affect Theory
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Natasha Bissonauth teaches Visual Art and Art History at York University in Toronto. Prior to joining the department, she was Assistant Professor of Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the College of Wooster, OH. She received her Ph.D. in Art History at Cornell University and her research centers queer, trans, and feminist of colour contemporary art practice with expertise in South Asia and its multiple diasporas. Recent research interests expand on indenture studies, archival work, and material cultures. They are currently working on a book project that investigates aesthetic encounters with archival fragments in ways that creates passage between legacies of immigration and indenture. By threading ‘areas’ like South Asia, the Caribbean, and Mauritius, Black and brown seams within the discipline emerge. Select publications include “Sunil Gupta’s Sun City: An Exercise in Camping Orientalism” (Art Journal, 2019), “The Future of Museological Display: Chitra Ganesh’s Speculative Encounters” (in Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism, 2020), and “The Dissent of Play: Lotahs in the Museum” (South Asia Journal, 2020). Recent articles examine gender and indenture aesthetics in Kama La Mackerel’s poetry and Renluka Maharaj’s visual practice. Several exhibition catalog essays are forthcoming, on the artistic practices of Zanele Muholi, Chitra Ganesh, and Meera Sethi, respectively. Additionally, they will contribute an exhibition essay for Divya Mehra’s next solo exhibition, winner of the Sobey Art Award in 2022. Select artist interviews, exhibition reviews, and book reviews appear in Art Asia Pacific, Art India, C Magazine, and Women + Performance. Bissonauth is the current Reviews Editor for the peer-reviewed journal ADVA (Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas).
Visual Art & Art History
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