Dr Joanne Morra

Biography

Joanne Morra is Professor of Art and Culture and Programmes Research Director at Central Saint Martins. Committed to art education and artistic practice as forms of knowledge making, she has taught fine art students over the past 25 years. Her research and publications focus on contemporary art practice as a personal, social, and political force for individual and collective transformation.

Key publications include ‘Inside the Freud Museum: History, Memory and Site-responsive Art’ (2018), and a series of collaborative projects: ‘Visualising Psychoanalysis’ with Katarzyna Bojarska (View: Theories and Practices of Visual Culture, 2023), ‘Creative Practices, Education and Wellbeing’ with Judy Willcocks (2018-20), ‘Intimacy Unguarded’ with Emma Talbot (Journal of Visual Art Practice, 2017), ‘50 Years of “Art and Objecthood”: Traces, Impact, Critique’ with Alison Green (2017) and ‘Acts of Translation’ with Mieke Bal (2007) (both in Journal of Visual Culture).

At present Joanne is working on two projects:

She is reading a host of recently published auto-theoretical/-historical/-fictional books written (mainly) by women (of colour).

And beginning a new project on artist and writer's notebooks, sketchbooks, scrapbooks and the politics of practice.

Joanne co-founded two journals: 'Journal of Visual Culture' (2000 – 2021), and the cultural studies and philosophy journal 'Parallax' (1995-2000) for which she co-edited a series of issues with Marquard Smith: 'To Jean-François Lyotard' (2000); 'The Re-Interpretation of Dreams' (2000); 'Translator’s Ink' (2000); 'Translating 'Algeria'' (1998); 'Kojève’s Paris/Now Bataille' (1997); 'Dissonant Feminisms' (1996); 'Theory/Practice' (1996); and 'Cultural Studies and Philosophy (1995)'.

Her research has been funded by: Arts Council of England, AHRB, The Leverhulme Trust; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Commonwealth Scholarship Commission; Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

She has been invited to give lectures in the UK and abroad at for instance: Aarhaus University; Bigli University; Clark Art Institute; Gothenburg University; Harvard University; Hong-Ik University; National Gallery of Art Warsaw; Royal College of Art, Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna; University of Edinburgh; University of Glasgow; European Humanities University of Lithuania/Belarus; University of Bergen; University of Zurich; and ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

Joanne has been a member of various Boards and Committees such as: Advisory Board of journal 'New Formations'; Board Member of Nida Doctoral School; Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council; Research Associate of the Freud Museum London; Founding Executive Board Member of International Association of Visual Culture; and Member of the AHRC Peer Review College.