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ABOUT
Dr. Ziegenfuss is a modern and contemporary art historian and visual studies scholar teaching and working in New Mexico. Her scholarship explores the material and cultural life of objects, sites, and structures often on the borders of traditional art history. Topics at the center of her research include materiality, ecological art, vernacular art forms, outsider art, and craft practices. In particular, her work critically examines the relationship between resource extraction, related industries (petrochemical, nuclear, mining), histories of slow violence, and the globalized art world. Her book project continues her research on synthetics in the art of Eva Hesse. In a concurrent research project, she explores the Bauhaus diaspora and its influence on the postwar proliferation of commercial plastic products in the United States. Additionally, she is an independent curator specializing in online exhibitions, digital preservation techniques, and virtually accessible archives and collections. Her current curatorial project examines how vernacular art has aesthetically and materially responded to the history of land use and abuse in the American Southwest region. |
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EDUCATION
PH.D., VISUAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE (2021)
M.A., WOMEN'S, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY STUDIES, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (2013)
B.A., Women's studies and history of art, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (2009)
Publications
“Dorothy Arzner.” In Hollywood Heroines: The Most Important Women in Film History, edited by Laura L.S. Bauer, 98-99. ABC-CLIO, 2019.
“Disrupting Cause-and-Effect Narratives of Pornography and Violence: A Contextual and Theoretical Case Study of Sexual Violence in Mainstream Media.” Oculus 1, 1 (2010): 77-91.
“The Grand Odalisque and Feminist Psychoanalysis: Hegemonic and Subversive Re-Interpretation of an Image.” Ohio State Libraries (2008): 1-28.
“Disrupting Cause-and-Effect Narratives of Pornography and Violence: A Contextual and Theoretical Case Study of Sexual Violence in Mainstream Media.” Oculus 1, 1 (2010): 77-91.
“The Grand Odalisque and Feminist Psychoanalysis: Hegemonic and Subversive Re-Interpretation of an Image.” Ohio State Libraries (2008): 1-28.
Art Criticism and Reviews
"Two Las Cruces Exhibitions Explore Fallout of Nuclear Weapons Testing." Southwest Contemporary (August 17, 2023).
https://southwestcontemporary.com/cara-despain-specter-trinity-legacies-of-nuclear-testing/
“Fred Tomaselli.” CAA Reviews (November 12, 2015). http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/2639 - .Vz3zEmNh2A8
“#1 must have: a photo zine for queers at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art." Museums & Social Issues 9.1 (April 2014): 69-74.
https://southwestcontemporary.com/cara-despain-specter-trinity-legacies-of-nuclear-testing/
“Fred Tomaselli.” CAA Reviews (November 12, 2015). http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/2639 - .Vz3zEmNh2A8
“#1 must have: a photo zine for queers at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art." Museums & Social Issues 9.1 (April 2014): 69-74.
Curatorial Projects
Factors of Scale: Vernacular Miniatures of Roswell, New Mexico
Miniature and Curious Collections Museum
Roswell, New Mexico.
Fall 2023
Critical Theory Archive Portal
2019
UC Irvine Libraries, Special Collections & Archives, Irvine, California
https://cta.lib.uci.edu
A Desert Guidebook
2016
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California
http://www.adesertguidebook.com
Miniature and Curious Collections Museum
Roswell, New Mexico.
Fall 2023
Critical Theory Archive Portal
2019
UC Irvine Libraries, Special Collections & Archives, Irvine, California
https://cta.lib.uci.edu
A Desert Guidebook
2016
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California
http://www.adesertguidebook.com
Media Attention
"The Fabricated American Desert," Verso, The Blog of the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, https://www.huntington.org/verso/2018/08/fabricated-american-desert
