Amelia Jones (born July 14, 1961), originally from

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

, is an American

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

, art theorist,

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, author, professor and

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

. Her research specialisms include

feminist art The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to produce feminist art, art that reflects women's lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for the production and perception of co ...

body art Body art is art in which the artist uses their human body as the primary medium.Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University, p. 88 Emerging from the context of Conceptual Art during the 1970s, Body art may include performanc ...

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

identity politics Identity politics is politics based on a particular identity, such as ethnicity, Race (human categorization), race, nationality, religion, Religious denomination, denomination, gender, sexual orientation, Socioeconomic status, social background ...

, and

New York Dada New York Dada was a regionalized extension of Dada, an artistic and cultural movement between the years 1913 and 1923. Usually considered to have been instigated by Marcel Duchamp's ''Fountain (Duchamp), Fountain'' exhibited at the first exhibitio ...

. Jones's earliest work established her as a feminist scholar and curator, including through a pioneering exhibition and publication concerning the art of

Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...

; later, she broadened her focus on other social activist topics including race, class and identity politics. Jones has contributed significantly to the study of art and

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

as a teacher, researcher, and activist.

Education and personal life

She is the daughter of Virginia Sweetnam Jones and Edward E. Jones, a

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

Psychology professor. She studied art history as an undergraduate at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and completed her M.A. at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. She received her Ph.D. from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in 1991. Her dissertation was later turned into a published book, ''Postmodernism and the Engendering of Marcel Duchamp'' (1994). On March 7, 1987, Jones married Anthony Sherin, a film editor. They divorced in 2005. In 2007, Jones married artist Paul Donald. She has two children, Evan and Vita, from her first marriage. Jones currently resides in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Career

After completing her PhD, Jones left Los Angeles to teach at universities throughout the United States as well as in

Manchester, England Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and

Montreal, Canada Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", and is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

. She has taught art history at

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

and the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, where she served as the Pilkington Chair of the department. She also served as the Grierson Chair in Visual Culture at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Montreal and has held visiting professorships at

Maine College of Art Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D) is a Private college, private art school in Portland, Maine. Founded in 1882, Maine College of Art & Design is the oldest arts educational institution in Maine. Roughly 32% of MECA&D students are from Maine. ...

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

, University of Colorado, Boulder, and

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

. She is currently the Robert A. Day Professor and Chair of Critical Studies at the USC Roski School of Art and Design, where she also serves as Vice Dean of Research. She is affiliated faculty in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. In addition to her work in academia, Jones has also curated a number of exhibitions, including ''Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago's Dinner Party in Feminist Art History'' (1996) at the

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

, ''The Politics of Difference: Artists Explore Issues of Identity'' (1991) at the Chandler Art Museum at

, and ''Material Traces: Time and the Gesture in Contemporary Art'' (2013) at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery at

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

in Montreal. She is also independently organizing a retrospective exhibition on the work of American performance artist

Ron Athey Ron Athey (born December 16, 1961) is an American performance artist associated with body art and with extreme performance art. He has performed in the U.S. and internationally (especially in the UK and Europe). Athey's work explores challenging ...

. Through art history, Amelia Jones has spoken out against cultural biases related to gender and race during her career. She has challenged most authoritative voices for insistently promoting a straight white-male perspective. Her work is committed to representing artists who are women, queer or people of color.

Books

Jones is the author and editor of numerous books and anthologies on art history, performance studies, queer studies, and visual culture. She currently serves as co-editor of the

Manchester University Press Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England, and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with t ...

series ''Rethinking Art's Histories'' with Martha Meskimmon. Jones has edited ''A Companion to Contemporary Art since 1945,'' a collection of art history and criticism by contributors who write on such topics as technology, formalism, public space, diasporas, culture wars, the avant-garde, and the society of the spectacle. She has also edited ''The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader,'' the seven part work of Provocations, Representation, Difference, Disciplines/Strategies, Mass culture/Media interventions, Body, and Technology. The following is a selection of works written or edited by Amelia Jones: * ''Postmodernism and the En-Gendering of

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

''. New York:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1994. * ''Sexual Politics:

's ' Dinner Party' in Feminist Art History''. Berkeley:

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, 1996. * ''Body Art/Performing the Subject''. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 1998. * Warr, Tracey and Amelia Jones (eds.). ''The Artist's Body''. London: Phaidon, 2000. * ''The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader''. New York:

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, 2003. * ''Irrational Modernism: A Neurasthenic History of New York Dada''. Cambridge, Massachusetts:

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

, 2004. * ''Self/Image: Technology, Representation, and the Contemporary Subject''. New York:

, 2006. * “The Artist is Present”: Artistic Re-enactments and the Impossibility of Presence. TDR, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Spring 2011), p. 16-45. Posted Online February 16, 2011.
TDR at MIT Press Journals * Adrian Heathfield, Heathfield, Adrian and Amelia Jones (eds.). ''Perform, Repeat, Record: Live Art in History''. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

, 2012. * ''Seeing Differently: A History and Theory of Identification and the Visual Arts''. New York:

, 2012. * "Sexuality" London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2014. * Silver, Erin and Amelia Jones (eds.). ''Otherwise: Imagining queer feminist art histories''. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015. * ''In between subjects: a critical genealogy of queer performance''. New York:

, 2021.

Awards

Throughout Amelia Jones' career she has been recognized for her valuable contributions to the art world. She has also been recognized for her progressive work with feminist ideas. She was award the Distinguished Feminist Award in 2015 which honors art, scholarship, or advocacy advancing the cause of equality for women in the arts. Previous winners of the award include The Guerrilla Girls,

Lucy Lippard Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. ...

and Lorraine O’Grady. Jones received a few awards prior that acknowledge her success as an art historian and feminist activist. Awards Amelia Jones received: * Distinguished Feminist Award, 2015 * National Endowment for the Humanities, 2000–01 * Guggenheim fellow, 2000. * Fellow of American Council of Learned Societies, 1994–95

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Amelia American art historians American feminists Living people Harvard University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Riverside faculty American women art historians 1961 births 21st-century American women American women curators American curators Washington University in St. Louis faculty University of Colorado Boulder faculty Texas Christian University faculty Maine College of Art & Design faculty Academic staff of McGill University