Research Expertise and Interest

photography, contemporary art, Art Pedagogy, performance, postcolonial studies, gender, queer, and trans studies, contemporary African Art, South Asian Art, art of the Global South, global modernisms

Research Description

Al-An deSouza (fka. Allan deSouza) works across different disciplines, including photography, text, performance and pedagogy. Their artworks have been shown extensively in the US and internationally. Their book, How Art Can Be Thought (Duke University Press, 2018), convincingly argues against many of the outdated myths that students might hold upon first taking an art class (easy grade, self-expression, “I know what I like,” anything goes…), and makes a strong case for art as a university-level research discipline with vital roles for a rapidly changing world. deSouza's most recent book Ark of Martyrs (SmingSming Press, 2020), is a polyphonic “replacement” of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. deSouza's writings have been published in various journals, anthologies, and catalogues, including Third Text, London, The Brooklyn Rail, and Art Journal, NY. Their artworks have been shown extensively in the U.S. and internationally, including at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; the Krannert Art Museum, IL, the Johnson Museum at Cornell, NY; Pompidou Centre, Paris, Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; Guangzhou Triennale, China.