Dr. Ileana L. Selejan is Lecturer in Art History, Culture and Society. A member of the PhotoDemos research collective, she is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at University College London, where she was previously Research Associate and contributor to the European Research Council (ERC) funded project, ‘Citizens of Photography: The Camera and the Political Imagination’. Other previous appointments include: Research Fellow with the Decolonising Arts Institute and Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. As the Linda Wyatt Gruber ’66 Curatorial Fellow in Photography at The Davis Museum at Wellesley College, she curated the exhibition ‘Charlotte Brooks at LOOK: 1951-1971,’ amongst others. She received her PhD in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and was granted the 2012–13 Joan and Stanford Alexander Award from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston for her research in Nicaragua. She has held research and teaching positions at various institutions including the Photography and Imaging Department at Tisch School of the Arts and the Art History Department at New York University, Parsons School of Design in New York, and the Fine Arts Department at West University, Timisoara, Romania. Dr. Selejan is the co-curator of the 2024 edition of BredaPhoto biennial.
Her work has been published in edited volumes and international peer-reviewed journals including Visual Studies, photographies, Photography & Culture, The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, Membrana, as well as in periodicals such as Aperture magazine, The Common literary magazine and Trigger journal. Her co-edited volume with Christopher Pinney and PhotoDemos collective, ‘Citizens of Photography: The Camera and the Political Imagination’ was published by Duke University Press in September 2023. She has presented her research and lectured at institutions as diverse as the Alternative Art School, Yale School of Art, the Tbilisi Photo Festival, the Museo Reina Sofia and The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, the Paul Mellon Centre, TATE, UCL, the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of London, and The Photographers Gallery. She has been a regular interviewee for the BBC World Service concerning Nicaraguan current affairs, and has been invited to collaborate with public and non-profit photography organisations, such as Magnum Photos. In addition to her academic and curatorial work, Dr. Selejan has been a contributing member of the experimental art and technology collective kinema ikon since 2007.
Research interests
I teach and advise students on a range of topics in modern and contemporary art, with a focus on photography and new media from the 19th century to date. My current courses:
With a focus on photography and contemporary art, my scholarship spans a range of topics related to documentary practices, art and technology, digital culture and social/ public engagement. Driven by an interest in understanding how photography and new media are impacting our awareness of the world, my research focuses on possibilities afforded by aesthetics in reshaping politics in Latin America and in Eastern Europe. In recent and forthcoming publications, I have explored how protest and civil disobedience have challenged centralised forms of power in the aftermath of Cold War-era revolutionary movements. Currently, I am writing a monograph based on long-term research on photography, memory, politics, and aesthetics in Nicaragua, provisionally titled ‘The Insurgent Archive: Photography and Politics in Nicaragua’. The book analyses the ways in which photography has been utilised in the context of the historic Sandinista revolution, as well as recent protest movements in Nicaragua.
I have also been developing a project concerning the historic representation of indigenous citizens in Guatemala. By studying digital reproductions of historic photographs and ethnographic imagery, as well as contemporary vernacular photography together with members from the Tzʼutujil community from the Atitlán region, I seek to provide a counter-narrative to enduring neo-colonial discourses. A chapter-length study is forthcoming in the first anthology on art and photography in Guatemala.
Parallel to these research outputs, I am working on a grant proposal on art, social engagement and the politics of memory in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Alongside my work in Latin America, I have been researching experimental practices and new media art, with an emphasis on multimedia approaches and digital technologies in Romania, and the greater Eastern European region.