Dr. Juliet Steyn is a cultural historian. She is interested in the workings of cultural institutions (art criticism, art exhibitions, museums, etc.) in the formation of the Subject and Identity. She has published widely on art and cultural criticism focusing on art, the politics of memory and identity, the language of display in museums and galleries. These have been addressed in an anthology she originated Other than Identity: the Subject, Politics and Art, Manchester University Press, 1997 and her book The Jew: Assumptions of Identity, Cassell, 1999.
She was awarded a PhD. In the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Kent at Canterbury, 1993; received an MA in the History of European Art (modern period) Courtauld Institute, University of London, 1976 & BA Fine Art, Birmingham Polytechnic. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Cultural Policy and Management, School of Arts, City University, London.
She has a long experience of organizing events and responsibility for the subsequent publications of the proceedings, including, a Roundtable discussion, ‘New Inventions in Museums’ with the Department of Informatics (funded by London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise,(LCACE, Feb.2009) A Musical Peace with the Department of Music at City that considered from the perspectives of international relations, philosophy and musicology , the West-Eastern Divan and orchestra established by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said (2007). Art Under Construction: The Balkans at City University, (2006) (funded by LCAC), Beautiful Translations at the Tate Gallery (1995) and the subsequent publication, Beautiful Translations in the Act 2 (Journal of Art, Criticism and Theory, Pluto Press, 1996).
Her professional activities have included Membership of the Editorial Board, Art History (2002-2006); Consultant, Museums and the End of History, Tate Gallery; Trustee, Pier Trust (Arts Trust and exhibition forum); Chair of the Editorial Board and Trustee of Rear Window (Visual Arts Trust and exhibition forum) and Advisor of Art for All?Their Policies and Our Culture, editors Dame Mary Warnock and Mark Wallinger (Peer, 2001). She has been a member of the AHRC College. Reader, Pluto Press and Theory, Culture and Society. She is a Member of the Association of Art Historians and AICA (International Association of Art Critics). She has been a member of the AHRC College, on the editorial board of Art History and a Trustee of the curatorial project Pier.
She was Advisory Curator for: Delivery & Patience, (2001) Mike Nelson’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale; Franceso Lo Savio (2000), exhibition at Langham Street, London, and accompanying book. She co-curated Pretext: Heteronyms, Clink Street, London (1995), De-Composition: Culture and Industry Towards the 2000, Complesso Monumentale del San Michele a Ripa, Rome, (1997) and contributed essays to both exhibition catalogues.
Forthcoming publications:
Breaching Borders: Art, Migrants and metaphors of Waste, IB Taurus, Summer, 2013.
‘ ‘The art of Experience’, in Art and Interactive Practice, (ed.) Kathyrn Brown, IB Taurus, 2013.
‘The Blind spots of Representation: the difficulty of reading’ in (ed.) Zeena Feldman, The Politics of Visibility: Mediating the Global, local and the In-between. IB Taurus, 2013
‘The Vicissitudes of Representation’, in (ed.) Jenny Kidd, Challenging Histories, Ashgate, 2013.
‘Light from the Middle East: New Photograpahy (with Stella Santacatterina) Third Text, 2013
Publications since 2005:
‘Review Roee Rosen: Vile, Evil Veil’, Iniva,(with Stella Santacatterina) Third Text, 2012.
In the Wake of Walter Benjamin’, Open Space: Vienna, 2012.
‘Imagining Jewish Art: Differentiating Difference in the Face of Identity’, Vol. 25, Issue,3, Third Text, 2011
‘Forced Journeys’ Visual Culture in Britain, Vo.11 Issue 2, July, 2010.
‘Realism versus Realism in British Art of the 1950s’, Third Text, Vol.22, Issue 2, March 2008.
‘Art and the Holocaust’ in Art and Christian Enquiry, Issue 53, spring 2008.
Co-editor (with Louisa Avgita) The Balkans Special Issue, Third Text, Vol.21, Issue,2, March 2007.
‘Introduction’ (with Louisa Avgita)
‘Reflections on the Balkans: Vesna’ by Suzanne Treister
‘The Cultural Politics of Friendship’,
Commissioning editor special issue of Futures, ‘The Future of Art’. Futures 39, (10) 2007:
Introduction: From Whither art futures?
‘Futures of the Past’
The Museums Future’, Futures, Vol.38 (5), 2006.
‘Jacob Epstein: The Artist who desired to épater’, Third Text, vol.19, Issue.6, 2005.