Dr. Dzenko began her academic training in studio arts when she majored in photography for her undergraduate degree. She soon realized that, for her, making art and conducting art historical analyses involve very similar processes. As an art historian, she investigates contemporary art and theory at the intersections of photography, performance, and expanded/new media. Recently a Visiting Fellow in the University of Nottingham’s Department of Art History, Dzenko is drafting a book manuscript about performance photographs in which she examines the identities often assumed to be, and constructed as, “normative” by dominant U.S. culture. Doing so counters the frequent biases in art-related fields, and larger culture, that affords certain identities the privilege of occupying “unmarked” positions. Following this line of study, Dzenko has also begun to research contemporary art in Brazil.

Education

Ph.D., Art History (History of Photography), University of New Mexico

M.A., Art History, University of Alabama

BFA, Two-Dimensional Art (Photography), Central Michigan University

Research Interests

Contemporary art history and theory; history and theories of photography and expanded/new media; art as an agent of social change; ideologies of identity.

Books

Corey Dzenko and Theresa Avila, eds. Contemporary Citizenship, Art, and Visual Culture: Making and Being Made. Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies. New York: Routledge, 2018.

Scholarly Articles

Interview with Sheryl Oring. “Radical Listening: Art and Citizenship in the Public Square—An Interview.” In Contemporary Citizenship, Art, and Visual Culture: Making and Being Made, Corey Dzenko and Theresa Avila, eds. New York: Routledge, 2018.

“Trespassing Masculine Institutional Space: Dora Longo Bahia’s ‘Do Campo a Cidade’ and the Art World.” Chasqui: Revisita de literatura latinoamericana 46, No. 2 (November 2017): 109-128.

“Introduction: Taking a Moment to Have a Say,” in Activating Democracy One Voice at a Time: I Wish to Say, ed. Sheryl Oring (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2016).

“Continuing to Work Toward U.S. Manhood: Contemporary Performance-Photographer Kerry Skarbakka’s The Struggle to Right Oneself.” Men and Masculinities 20, No. 1 (April 2017): 3-26. doi:10.1177/1097184X15604687.

Presentations/Invited Talks

Latin American Studies Association. Barcelona, Spain (forthcoming May 2018). Paper: “Transnational Facts and Fictions: Contemporary Brazilian Artist Dora Longo Bahia’s Use of Appropriation.” Panel—Appropriation and Internationalism in Contemporary Brazilian Art.

Rethinking Regionalism. University of Nottingham, England. (June 2017). Symposium participant and presenter. Paper: “‘How Did She Get There?’: The Shifting Normalcy of Nikki S. Lee’s The Ohio Project (1999).” Funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Latin American Studies Association. Lima, Peru (April 2017). Paper: “Presenting the Past to Change the Future: Dora Longo Bahia’s Contemporary Art Practice in Brazil.” Panel—Between the Personal and Political: Women’s Self/Conscious Creative Practices in Latin America, Part 2 (Chairs: Erin McCutcheon and Celia Vara).

College Art Association. New York, NY. (February 2017). Paper: “Walking in the Grass: Using Campus as Source Material.” Panel: State of the Art (History): Pedagogy Laboratory (Chair: Michelle Millar Fisher).

Association of Art Historians. Edinburgh, Scotland. (April 2016). Paper: “Mixing Fiction and Reality and Believing in Lies, Making Them Come True: Dora Longo Bahia Archives History in ‘Do Campo a Cidade’ (2010).” Panel: The Artist as Historian (Co-chairs: James Bloom and Amy Frederick).

College Art Association. Washington, DC (February 2016). Paper: “Dirtying Suburban Space: Gregory Crewdson’s Twilight and Beneath the Roses.” Panel: Something in the Dirt: Discourses of Hygiene, Health, and Progress in the North American Landscape (Co-chairs: Sarah J. Moore and John-Michael Warner).

The College of New Jersey Art Gallery. Ewing, NJ (March 2015). Speaker and panel discussant. In conjunction with the exhibit The Unfixed Image: The Photographic Across Media. Paper: “Material Matters: Investing in Photographic Transparency.”

“1st International Symposium on Men and Masculinities: Identities, Cultures, and Societies.” Initiative for the Critical Study of Masculinities. Izmir, Turkey (September 2014). Paper: “From the Field to the City: Dora Longo Bahia’s Artistic Transgressions.”

Visiting Artists Series. Prague College, Czech Republic (June 2014). Paper: “Negotiating Normativity: Contemporary Constructed Photographs by Kerry Skarbakka, Nikki S. Lee, and Gregory Crewdson.”

Additional Information

Other recent writings:

“Walking on the Grass: Using Campus as Source Material.” Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR) (March 27, 2017). http://arthistoryteachingresources.org/2017/03/walking-on-the-grass-using-campus-as-source-material/. Invited publication.

Thinker-in-Residence, Art in Odd Places (AiOP)—“Questions of RACE in 2016: Looking for Answers in Art in Odd Places” (December 30, 2016).