The Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art is delighted to report that former Judith Neilson Post-Doctoral Fellow of Contemporary Art, Dr. Yu-chieh Li, has been appointed to the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Professor.

In her new role, Dr. Li will contribute to the art history curricula of BA and MA programmes. In the upcoming academic year, she will teach a new course on media art history, besides other required courses such as thesis instruction and histories of Asian art. Her monograph Approaching Autonomy: Post-socialist Conceptualism in Chinese Art will be published soon by Brill De Gruyter. Moving ahead, Dr. Li plans to expand her research on performance art and postcolonial art historiography in Asia and develop collaborations with international research institutions through conferences and publications. 

Her current research projects began during her time in Sydney: With the support of Judith Neilson Fellowship, she went on a field trip to Beijing and Shanghai and interviewed performance artists and acquired important archival materials, which prepared Dr. Li for her current book project on live art festivals in Asia and Europe. Funded by the Faculty Research Grant at the , she organized a Symposium “Gazing from the Sinosphere: Media Art as Border Crossings” in 2019. The insights she gained from conversations with artists, curators, and art historians, not only resulted in two journal articles, but will also be developed into a new project on the issue of temporality in Asian video art. 

Reflecting on her experience, Dr. Li notes, ‘My mentor Professor Paul Gladston, the Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art, and other colleagues at the were extremely supportive of my research and provided valuable advice on grant applications and teaching. I also benefited much from my interactions with arts professionals and thinkers in Sydney, who inspired me in reconsidering the postcolonial conditions of art in Asia Pacific. The research environment at the , as well as the support of the Judith Neilson Fellowship, are no doubt significant to my career development.’

Dr. Yu-chieh Li completed and initiated extensive and high-quality research projects during her tenure as the inaugural Judith Neilson Postdoctoral Fellow from 2018 to 2020. Find out more here.


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