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Staff Profile

Dr Olga Smith

NUAcT Fellow - Culture and Creative Arts

  • Address: Fine Art
    Newcastle University
    Armstrong Building
    Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Background

I am an art historian specializing in contemporary art. My research interests evolved over time to include interchanges between art and intellectual ideas, trans-national identity, landscape and ecology.


My recent publications show how climate emergency is appraised and countered through methods and practices of art history. Methods for Ecocritical Art History (Manchester University Press, 2026), co-edited with Andrew Patrizio, is a major survey of the field of ecocritical art history and an indispensable tool of ecopedagogy. Within the field of ecocritical art history I have also published on topics such as climate migration and ecopolitics of common weeds.

 

My research on photography has been driven by ambition to participate in the current attempts to de-center and expand photographic canon. My monograph, Contemporary Photography in France: Between Theory and Practice (Leuven University Press, 2022) has been praised as “opening new perspectives in global media historiographies.” I am the sole editor of Photography and Landscape (Photographies, 2019) and co-editor of Anamnesia: Private and Public Memory in Modern French Culture (Peter Lang, 2009).

 

A graduate of the University of Cambridge (BA, MPhil, PhD), I have an interdisciplinary training in art history, philosophy and literature. Prior to coming to Newcastle University in 2023, I have been a recipient of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellowship at the University of Vienna, and postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Warwick and Humboldt University of Berlin. Previously, I have held a curatorial post at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. My research has been supported by EU’s Horizon 2020 and the AHRC in the UK and I have held visiting positions at international institutions including The Institut national d'histoire de l'art (Paris), Institute of Advanced Studies UCL (London) and Centre for Environmental Humanities, Ca' Foscari University (Venice).

Research

The main thread connecting different topics in my research is a search for narratives of identity and belonging that are attuned to the realities of the globally connected world we inhabit today. This agenda has been undoubtedly shaped by my experiences as a former stateless person and an immigrant.

 

My current research is directly concerned with the role of visual culture in shaping a cultural response to ongoing environmental crises through the practices of ecopedagogy, ecocriticism and writing. Methods for Ecocritical Art History (Manchester University Press, 2026) is a major contribution to the field of ecocriticism and ecopedagogy. My most recent research project considers the overlapping issues of ecology, labour, and motherhood, in art and life.


Dedication to environmental justice underpins my curatorial and outreach projects, including Looking with Nature: a collaboration between the Laing Gallery and Newcastle University’s staff and students. As independent curator I have worked with venues such as Tate Gallery London, The Photographers Gallery, London, and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM3-fzj2Ofo&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.northeastmuseums.org.uk%2F

 

I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students, postdoctoral and visiting researchers interested in conducting research in the fields of ecocritical and environmental approaches to the study of art. I currently supervise the following PhD candidates:

Isobel Harbinson, Hydrofeminist Embodiment in Contemporary Waterscapes.

Chloe Chen, Hybrid Bodyscape: Performing the Diasporic Self in Britain, 1980s-2000s.

Paulina Michnowska, Revitalising Indigenous Heritage Through Art Participatory Practices.

Publications

  • Articles

  • Authored Book

  • Book Chapters

    • Smith O. Human Consequences. In: Arena G; Caneve M, ed. Calamita/à an investigation into the Vajont catastrophe. Amsterdam: FW Books, 2024, pp.512.
    • Smith O. Susanne Kriemann. In: Levin B; Schönegg K, ed. Image Ecology. Leipzig: Spector Books, 2023.
    • Smith O. Interview with Olga Smith. In: Soutter, L; Woolridge, D, ed. Writer Conversations. London: 1000 Words, 2023, pp.144. In Preparation.
    • Smith O. Décentrer la perspective humaine: Le paysage dans l’Anthropocène. In: Méaux, D; Tichit, J, ed. Arts Contemporains et Anthropocène. Paris: Hermann, 2022, pp.256. In Preparation.
    • Smith O. Climate Migration. In: Baldacci, C; Omodeo, P; Bassi, S, ed. Venice and the Anthropocene: An Ecocritical Guide. Venice: Wetland Books, 2022. In Preparation.
    • Smith O. Dafna Talmor: Manipulated Landscapes. In: Talmor, D, ed. Constructed Landscapes. Amsterdam: FW Books, 2020, pp.210.
    • Smith O. Dafna Talmor: Constructed Landscapes, Cloud Negatives. In: Dafna Talmor, ed. Dafna Talmor: Constructed Landscapes. London: Loose Joints, 2017, pp.210. In Preparation.
    • Smith O. Plaines et platitudes: les réinventions du paysage photographique dans l’œuvre de Jean-Marc Bustamante et Joachim Brohm. In: Frangne, P-H; Limido, P, ed. Les inventions photographiques du paysage, du XIXe siècle à nos jours. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016. In Preparation.
    • Smith O. Pierre Huyghe’s travels with Edgar Allan Poe. In: Brincken, J; Gröbel, U; Schulzki, I, ed. Fictions/Realities. New Forms and Interactions. München: Martin Meidenbauer, 2012. In Preparation.
    • Smith O. Hoaxer’s voyage: Pierre Huyghe’s A Journey that wasn’t. In: Mathias, M; O’Sullivan, M; Vorstman, R, ed. Display and Disguise. Bern: Peter Lang, 2011.
    • Smith O. “A hollow image of the person”: objects of memory in the art of Christian Boltanski. In: Smith, O; Collier, P; Elsner, A, ed. Anamnesia: Private and Public Memory in Modern French Culture. Bern: Peter Lang, 2009. In Preparation.

  • Edited Books

  • Editorial

  • Online Publications

    • Smith O. Philippe Parreno, 6.00 PM. tate.org.uk, 2014. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/parreno-6-00-pm-t12411.
    • Smith O. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Séance de Shadow II (bleu). tate.org.uk, 2014. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gonzalez-foerster-seance-de-shadow-ii-bleu-t12752. In Preparation.

  • Reviews

    • Smith O. Hilde van Gelder, Ground Sea: Photography and the Right to Be Reborn. Focales 2023, 7. In Preparation.
    • Smith O. Karl Kusserow (ed.), Picture Ecology: Art and Ecocriticism in Planetary Perspective. Journal 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual 2022, 3. In Preparation.
    • Smith O. Danièle Méaux, Géo-photographies : une approche renouvelée des territoires. History of Photography 2017, 41. In Preparation.