Andrea D. Fitzpatrick (she/her; they/them) completed a Ph.D. in art history and critical theory from McGill University in Montreal in 2005. Since joining the University of Ottawa in 2007, where they are Associate Professor, History and Theory of Art, in the Department of Visual Arts, they have taught undergraduate and graduate courses on international contemporary art, photographic art, the art of the Middle East, the Global South (with a focus on Africa), and related cultural theories. Research interests are primarily contemporary Iranian visual art and photography, identity and gender in art and visual culture, critical race theory, anti-colonial theories, the politics and ethics of representation, and artistic responses to occupation, war, and conflict. A publication in the anthology Der Mann in Der Krise? (Köln: Böhlau, 2015) focuses on the Iranian artist Sadegh Tirafkan (1965-2013) and issues of martyrdom, veiling, masculinity, and mourning. In 2015, Fitzpatrick edited an artist’s book entitled Sadegh Tirafkan: A History for the Future published with the Tirafkan Cultural Foundation of Tehran and Toronto. The 2017 book chapter “The Female Voice in the Art of Newsha Tavakolian, Shirin Neshat, and Parastou Ahadi” in Contemporary Iranian Photography: Five Perspectives (Mazda) demonstrates Fitzpatrick’s research in gender, aesthetics, and politics. They have researched identity, queer visualities, and race in the performance art of Canadian-Iranian artist Rah, whose videos Oreo and SuperNova have been exhibited internationally. Fitzpatrick also conducted field research in the United Arab Emirates in 2019 at Sharjah Art Foundation, at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and at the NYU Abu Dhabi Archives (Akkasah Center for Photography) and has visited Iran twice (in 2010 and 2014) to meet with contemporary artists and to visit art galleries. In 2012, they curated two exhibitions of Iranian lens-based art at the Canadian artist-run centers Galerie SAW Gallery in Ottawa (Ciphers: Tension with Tradition) and Toronto’s Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography (Gender and Exposure), which was a Contact Festival Feature Exhibition. Their essays have been published into German, Farsi, and French and have presented papers on Iranian art as a Visiting Guest Professor at the University of Colorado (Boulder) in 2016, in Dresden at the 34th Congress of German Art Historians (2017), University of Potsdam/Berlin (2013), and at University of Bonn/Kunstverein Bonn (2012). Fitzpatrick has also presented papers on Iranian art at the annual conferences of the College Art Association (U.S.) and at the Universities Art Association in Canada. Methodologies for the study of contemporary art of the Global South and responses to field research on art and exhibitions conducted over the past decade (in Berlin, Kassel, Venice, South Africa, the U.A.E., Iran, the United States, and Canada) are the subject of ongoing scholarly writings and presentations, including a talk (“The Potential of Visual Art in Contemporary Global Contexts”) for the 15th Session of Ottawa Intellectual Dialogues (Parts 1 & 2, on YouTube, July, 2021). At University of Ottawa, Fitzpatrick is a member of the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies and the Faculty of Graduate and Post-Graduate Studies and able to supervise graduate students.
