How many “untitled documents” are sitting in your Google Drive with the first few sentences of an unformed, but possibly brilliant, idea? How many lines were axed in sacrifice to a rigid word count that have been plaguing you ever since? Or, what of the spicy conceptual framework that you discovered in the last few months before the thesis was due that you just didn’t have time to include? If this is you, you’re not alone! Writer and independent curator, Elena Gross, will discuss the iterative process by which they build upon the conceptual and theoretical foundations developed during graduate work in the Visual & Critical Studies program and how to apply them to contemporary curatorial and creative work. Through interdisciplinary approaches in exhibition making, writing, and arts advocacy, Gross will explore how, the thesis and other projects, constitute an unfolding toolbox for new thought and experimentation.

About the Speaker:

Elena Gross (she/they) Elena Gross (she/they) is an independent writer and curator living in Oakland, CA. She specializes in representations of identity in fine art, photography, and popular media. Her research has been centered around conceptual and material abstractions of the body in the work of Black modern and contemporary artists and most recently in queer artistic and literary histories of the late 20th century. Her most recent writing can be found in the publication Blood Sweat & Time: Emerging Perspectives on Mildred Howard and Adrian Burrell (Sming Sming Books). Elena is the co-editor, along with Julie R. Enszer, of OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture (Rutgers University Press), winner of the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Anthologies.