Education

B.A. University of British Columbia; Ph.D. University of Toronto

Area of Specialization

Modernism, Contemporary Art, Critical Theory, Curatorial Practices

Courses Taught

Art History Introduction, 20th Century European Art, 20th Century American, Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art in New York City, Modernism in Art and Literature, Issues in Art, Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices, Art and Ecology, Feminism in the Arts, Women Make Movies, Art of the Russian Avant-garde

Biography

Jo Anna Isaak is the Marion Chair in Art History. This position is established in honor of John L Marion, FCO'54. Her research and writing focus on modern and contemporary art and critical theory and more recently on environmental issues. Her first book traced the connections between visual art and literature in European modernism; her second book was an exploration of laughter as a revolutionary strategy employed by contemporary women artists. She has organized several art exhibitions which have toured the U.S. and Canada including: "The Revolutionary Power of Women's Laughter," "Looking Forward, Looking Black" and "H20," an exhibition about water and the human body.

She has been the recipient of several awards including: The J. Paul Getty Fellowship and the Hewlett Mellon Fellowship for Research in the Soviet Union.

Selected Publications

• Feminism and Contemporary Art: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Laughter, Routledge, 1997.
• The Ruin of Representation in Modernist Art and Texts, UMI Research Press, 1986.
• PressPlay, Conversations with Artists 1995-2005, Phaidon, 2006..
• Mobile Fidelities: Conversations on Feminism, History and Visuality, KT Press, 2006.
• "Trash: Public Art by the Garbage Girls," in Gendering Landscape Art, Manchester University Press, 2000.
• H2O, 2002.
• Looking Forward, Looking Black, 1999.
• Laughter Ten Years After, 1995.