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—research, draft, revise, and repeat—except that she now produces texts and exhibitions, instead of imagery. As an art historian, her interest in the intersections of photography, performance, and digital technologies organically led her to also consider Socially Engaged Art. Working methodologically with the Social History of Art, she analyzes collaboration and civic engagement in Contemporary Art. To such aims, she seeks to create more “public scholarship” through open-access publications, exhibitions, community presentations, and teaching.

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

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

Books

Corey Dzenko, ed., with Sheryl Oring. Secretary to the People: Civic Engagement Through the Art of Sheryl Oring. Intellect Books, 2027.

Corey Dzenko and Theresa Avila, eds. Contemporary Citizenship, Art, and Visual Culture: Making and Being Made. Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies. Routledge, 2018. (Paperback available 2022).

Scholarly Articles

“Sheryl Oring’s I Wish to Say.” Katrina’s America, ed. Andy Horowitz. Southern Cultures (Fall 2025): 88-93. Photo essay.
 
“Rumpled Bed Sheets and Online Mourning: Social Photography and the COVID-19 Pandemic—Haruka Sakaguchi’s Quarantine Diary and Marvin Heiferman’s Instagram Account @whywelook.” In Imagining Air: Cultural Axiology and the Politics of Invisibility, ed. Tatiana Konrad, 131-60. University of Exeter Press, 2023. Funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Invited chapter.
 
“Miriam Beerman’s Painting of the Absurd.” Miriam Beerman (1923-2022): Nothing Has Changed. DiMattio Gallery, Monmouth University (Sept. 6-Dec. 11, 2022). Invited catalog essay.
 
“Mixing Fiction and Reality: The Parafictional History of Dora Longo Bahia’s ‘Do Campo a Cidade’ (2010).” Art from Latin America, Burlington Contemporary (June 2021).
 
“Striking a Chord: Kerry Skarbakka’s Recent Works.” White Noise: Kerry Skarbakka. Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA (Jan. 19-Mar. 9, 2019). Invited catalog essay.
 
“Collective Being: Vincent DiMattio/50.” Vincent DiMattio/50. DiMattio Gallery, Monmouth University (Sept. 4-Dec. 7, 2018). Invited catalog essay.
 
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., 168-78. Routledge, 2018.
 
“Action (and) Painting/Painting (and) Action: Sheba Sharrow’s Balancing Act.” Sheba Sharrow: Balancing Act. DiMattio Gallery, Monmouth University (Sept. 5-Dec. 3, 2017). Invited catalog essay.
 
“Trespassing Masculine Institutional Space: Dora Longo Bahia’s ‘Do Campo a Cidade’ and the Art World.” Chasqui: Revisita de literatura latinoamericana 46, 2 (Nov. 2017): 109-28.
 
“Continuing to Work Toward US Manhood: Contemporary Performance-Photographer Kerry Skarbakka’s The Struggle to Right Oneself.” Men and Masculinities 20, 1 (Apr. 2017): 3-26.
 
“Taking a Moment to Have a Say.” In Activating Democracy: The “I Wish to Say” Project, ed. Sheryl Oring, 1-6. Intellect Books, 2016. Invited essay.

Presentations/Invited Talks

“Interwoven,” Southeast College Art Conference (SECAC). Winston-Salem, NC (Oct. 2026). Paper: “Bearing Witness: Miriam Beerman’s Expressive Social Engagement.” Panel—Art(ist) Work (Chair: Corey Dzenko).
 
Air and Environmental Health in the (Post-)COVID-19 World. International online event. “Haruka Sakaguchi and Marvin Heiferman: Photography and Living Through the COVID-19 World.” Nov. 2025.
 
Participation in Art/Museums. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb (Sept. 2025). Paper: “Secretary to the People: Recent Case Studies from Sheryl Oring’s I Wish to Say.” (Chairs: Patricia Počanić and Željka Miklošević).
 
Drawing the Line: Race, Gender, Ethics, and the Arts. New Hampshire Institute of Politics, Saint Anselm College (Mar. 2025). Paper: “The Labor of Caring: LaToya Ruby Frazier’s and Haruka Sakaguchi’s Photographic Practices” (Chairs: Sean Parr and Laura Shea).
 
2025 International Women’s Day Women in Photography Conference-a-Thon. Online, 24-hour global event (Mar. 2025). Paper: “Photography as Care: Haruka Sakaguchi’s Documentary Practice” (Chairs: Kris Belden-Adams and Rose Teanby).
 
The Harlem Renaissance: A History of African American Art & Culture. Virtual panel discussion. Long Branch Free Public Library, Long Branch, NJ (Feb. 2024).
 
“Crossroads,” Southeast College Art Conference (SECAC). Richmond, VA (Oct. 2023). Paper: “Documenting Together: Photographers LaToya Ruby Frazier’s and Haruka Sakaguchi’s Collaborative Storytelling.” Panel—Sitter/Model/ Performer: Rethinking Agency in Participation (Chair: María Beatriz H. Carrion).
 
Air: Perspectives from the Environmental and Medical Humanities, lecture series. University of Vienna (June 2022). “Rumpled Bed Sheets and Online Mourning: Social Photography and the COVID-19 Pandemic—Haruka Sakaguchi’s Quarantine Diary and Marvin Heiferman’s Instagram Account @whywelook.”
 
“Kerry Skarbakka—White Noise: Artist Talk and Discussion.” Part 1: Artist Talk, Part 2: Scholar/Teacher:::Teacher/Scholar, A Conversation between Kerry Skarbakka and Corey Dzenko. ArtNOW: Performance, Art, and Technology, Monmouth University (Mar. 25, 2021). Virtual event.

Awards

Edna W. Andrade Fund, Philadelphia Foundation (2024). In support of the exhibition I Wish That I Had Spoken Only of It All: Twenty Years of Sheryl Oring’s “I Wish to Say,” DiMattio Gallery, Monmouth University.
 
Diversity Innovation Grant, Monmouth University (2024). In support of the exhibition I Wish That I Had Spoken Only of It All: Twenty Years of Sheryl Oring’s “I Wish to Say,” DiMattio Gallery, Monmouth University.
 
Judith H. Stanley Traveling Fellowship for Improvement of Teaching in the Humanities, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Monmouth University (2017).
 
Center of Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Research Grant in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Monmouth University (2015-18). Project: Students as Critical Agents.

Additional Information

Curatorial Projects:
I Wish That I Had Spoken Only of It All: Twenty Years of Sheryl Oring’s “I Wish to Say,” DiMattio Gallery, Monmouth University (Sept. 3-Dec. 20, 2024). With exhibition catalog.

Printmaking as Social Commentary, Rechnitz Hall, Monmouth University (Sept. 3-Dec. 20, 2024). Developed with students in AR 242: History of Western Art II.
 
Durham: Recent Photographs by Jeremy Lange, Gatewood Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2013). Developed for the Creative Time Summit with students in AR 219: Sophomore Seminar in Art History.
 
Atomic Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection. National Atomic Museum, Albuquerque, NM (2008).