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Staff Profile

Dr Fiona Anderson

Senior Lecturer in Art History

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 8687
Background

I am Senior Lecturer in Art History in the Fine Art department at Newcastle. Before coming to Newcastle, I taught at the University of York and the University of Edinburgh. I received a PhD in American Studies from King’s College London (KCL) in 2011 and studied for a BA and MA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. My research and teaching explores LGBTQ+ art and art history from the 1970s to the present, mostly in Europe and the USA. I am particularly interested in queer art and art history in the context of the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis and how ephemeral queer cultures might be archived or otherwise preserved through art and writing.

Research

My research explores queer art and art history from the 1970s to the present, mostly in Europe and the USA. I am particularly interested in queer art and art history in the context of the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis and how ephemeral queer cultures might be archived or otherwise preserved through art and writing.

I am the author of the book Cruising the Dead River: David Wojnarowicz and New York's Ruined Waterfront (University of Chicago Press, 2019), which examines the erotic and political roles that New York's post-industrial landscape played for various queer communities in the city. Telling the story of the piers as gentrification swept New York and before the AIDS crisis, Cruising the Dead River unearths buried histories of violence, regeneration, and LGBTQ activism that developed in and around this cruising scene. My writing has also been published in journals such as Third Text, Performance Research, Journal of American Studies, and Oxford Art Journal.

My current research includes a special issue of British Art Studies on 'Queer Art in Britain Since the 1980s', co-edited with Flora Dunster, Theo Gordon, and Laura Guy, and a book about HIV/AIDS related cultural production in the North East of England from the 1980s to the present. Longer term, I am planning a book about art, music, and Americana which draws on my monthly radio show and club night Wildflowers, which explores country music, folk, and Americana from a queer feminist and global perspective. Wildflowers is broadcast on Slack's Radio, a community-led radio station based in The Lubber Fiend in Newcastle, where the club night also happens.

I am Reviews Editor for Art History journal.

Recent talks

  • 'To Eternity: Sunil Gupta and archival ambivalence in queer British photography', Concerning Photography symposium, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (December 2021)
  • 'Ambivalence in Sunil Gupta's From Here to Eternity', Durjoy Bangladesh symposium to mark From Here to Eternity: Sunil Gupta. A Retrospective, The Photographers Gallery, London (March 2021)
  • Queer New York roundtable with Sarah Schulman, Gavin Butt, and Darius Bost, University of Birmingham (February 2021)
  • ''Dogs of the world unite': Keith Haring and New York's queer canine imaginary', The Centre for American Art research seminar series, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London (November 2020)
  • 'Dead rivers', Mapping the Collection, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (October 2020)
  • ‘Cruising as Theory and Practice: Preserving New York’s Ruined Waterfront’, UCL History of Art research seminar series (October 2019), Queer@King’s seminar series (March 2019), Northumbria University Visual and Material Culture seminar series (February 2019)




Teaching

I teach at undergraduate and graduate level. At Newcastle, I teach Art History modules on gender and sexuality in relation to modern and contemporary art, and art writing. In 2018 and 2021, I was shortlisted for a Newcastle University Teaching Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to Equality and Diversity in Teaching.


Undergraduate teaching 

Stage 1

  • Art Histories I and Art Histories II

Stage 2

  • Feminist and Queer Approaches to Modern and Contemporary Art

Stage 3

  • Dissertation supervisor

Stage 4

  • Art Writing


PhD supervision

I have experience supervising Art History and Fine Art practice-based PhD students. I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students working on topics relating to modern and contemporary art and queer history, HIV/AIDS and art, gentrification and art in the urban context, and art and queer archives.

Publications