Ian Bourland

I am a critic and historian who writes about rhetoric, technology, and empire in the Atlantic world. My scholarship investigates an array of cultural-political strategies, especially lens and time-based media such as photography, film, video, performance, and music. While I focus on modernist/contemporary practice, my projects argue that these categories are provisional formations constituted through complex, transnational flows.

Such research is reflected in courses that survey art worlds, aesthetic philosophy, and photographic history, as well as seminars on modernism, curatorial practice, art criticism, and diasporic and global southern networks. Since 2023 I have been a program faculty member in Film and Media Studies at Georgetown.

My writing appears in a range of scholarly, industry, and popular formats, including leading publications where I have been an editor or regular contributor, such as frieze, Artforum International, and Aperture. I am an alum of the Whitney ISP and before joining the College of Arts and Sciences, I taught at the University of Chicago, SAIC, the University of Illinois, and the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Academic Appointment(s)

Secondary
Department Chair, College - Department of Art & Art History