Dr Azadeh Fatehrad

Teaching and research have always been fundamental to my role as an artist and scholar. I have a strong commitment to pedagogy of the highest level, developed over years of working at and with several institutions in UK, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands and Germany.

In my recent positions as a Lecturer in Contemporary Art and Curating, Lecturer in Experimental Image Making, Lecturer in MRes Art and Exhibition Studies and Lecturer in Photography, I have contributed across all levels in terms of teaching, assessments and evaluations, supervising and marking BA and MA dissertations alongside MAFA professional practice.

In my role at Kingston University, I have worked across postgraduate and undergraduate levels to deliver theoretical and thematic seminars, tutorials, assessments, progress evaluation and course module planning. I have also contributed towards module design, considering review and quality assurance mechanisms. I have created two new modules titled 'Adventures in the Archive' (MA) and 'Video Art: An Introduction to Moving Image Practice' (BA) – both are currently taught to students.

At PhD level I had interviewed more than dozens of candidates and had supervised five international PhD practice-based students working across different mediums and expanding the research and contributing to the research culture at the School.

I welcome MRes and PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in the following areas:

• Creative exile
• Multimedia installation (sound and video)
• Contemporary art and curating
• Archive and historiography
• Middle Eastern feminist history

In my role at the University, I have worked with a mix of students from all over the world, including Italy, China, Korea, Brazil and France. I paid particular attention to students with learning difficulties and those who needed a bit more help with the English language, to ensure they received and grasped all the important information.

As part my of my continuous professional development, I have been prolific in presenting academic papers such as Structures and Voices: Storytelling in Post-Digital Times at the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS) at the University of Gdansk (June 2019) and at the Society for Artistic Research at Zurich University of the Arts (March 2019); Revolt She Said at Chelsea College of Art and Design (Feb 2019); and 'Gesture: Writing that Moves Between' at the Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester (February 2019) and at the Design and Displacement Conference (DHS), Parsons School of Design, New York (Sep 2018).

I am an active practitioner in the field of curating and contemporary art practice. My recent exhibitions include a group show at London Design Biennale (2021), solo exhibition at Danielle Arnaud, London (June 2019) titled The Echo of Your Departures – II and a group exhibition of a two-channel video titled Another Land at Kingston Museum (April 2019). This is in addition to my recent curatorial projects such as The Spark Is You at Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London (June 2019) and Between the Visible and the Invisible at Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE (September 2019).

Qualifications

• Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
• PhD Practice- based, Photography Department, Royal College of Art. (Thesis Unconditional Pass)
• Studentship at Royal Asiatic Society, London/New York.
• MRes Art practice, University of the Arts Londo
• Master of Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design.

Through the diverse research projects I have been involved in, I have had the opportunity to work with a vast number of public and private art galleries, museums and art institutes,nationally and internationally, in Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Stockholm, Oslo, Tehran and Vancouver, among other cities. Just some of the institutions I have been involved with include the Weltkulturen Museum (Museum of World Cultures) in Frankfurt (Objects of Desire in Ethnographic Collections), Archiv für Forschung und Dokumentation Iran (AFDI) in Berlin (National Unity of Women's Associations), the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam (Sediqeh Dowlatabadi's Archive), Bois des Moutiers in Normandy (Sir Edwin Lutyens' Archive) and the Feminist Library in London (Adventures in the Archives). I have also enjoyed successful collaborations with the Delfina Foundation in London, and Index - The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm. 

To highlight just a few of my recent achievements, I was the Keynote Speaker at the Association for Art History's conference 'New Voices: Art & Text' held at the University of Nottingham (Nov 2019). I have acted as an external examiner for PhDs at the University of Sussex,Leeds Beckett University,RMIT University and Southampton University. I have worked as a peer reviewer for the European Journal of Media Studies (NECSUS) (July 2019- present) and Edinburgh University Press (May 2019- present). I have been one of the Internal Peer Reviewer (IPR) for Research Excellent Framework (REF 2021) unit 32 (Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory) reviewing submission from academics and practitioners across the Kingston School of Art.

Teaching and research have always been fundamental to my role as an artist and scholar. I have a strong commitment to pedagogy of the highest level, developed over years of working at and with several respected educational institutions in UK, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands and Germany.  

Specialisms

• Creative Exile
• Contemporary Art and Curating
• Middle Eastern Feminist history
• Multimedia Installation (sound and video)
• Archive and Historiography

Scholarly affiliations

• Society for Artistic Research (SAR)
• European Artistic Research Network (EARN)
• MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture Journal, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• The Warburg Institute London
• Association for Art History (AAH)
• University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
• International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam, Netherlands
• European Journal of Media Studies (NECSUS)
• Moving Image Review & Art Journal
• Archiv für Forschung und Dokumentation Iran (AFDI), Berlin, Germany

I am currently responsible for Design School projects bringing design enterprise to the fore across the departments of Graphic Design, Illustration Animation, Fashion and 3D Design. Given the number of projects I have been involved in over the years, and their depth and rigour, it has been important for me to develop excellent fundraising skills.

My current project titled ‘MaHoMe' is a multi-disciplinary project. It uses multi-sited ethnographic methods, including critical discourse analysis, visual ethnography and participatory aesthetics. I am active in the policy ecosystem, working with a broad range of researchers, policymakers and practitioners. Indeed, my ‘MaHoMe' network includes the Baltic Art Center Visby, SOL - Centre for Languages and Literature and Lund University (Sweden); VIA University College (Denmark); and Counterpoints Arts (London), among others. In this international collaboration I am using visual ethnography, in particular the mobile phone, as a method of generating deep and rich insights into the overlooked meaning of home and homemaking from migrants' perspectives.

My collaborative research processes and outputs (an interactive digital platform, an aesthetic methodological toolbox, a docufiction film, a touring exhibition and a policy recommendation document, as well as various publications) are designed for maximum societal impact, ensuring the best possible engagement and dissemination to a broad range of stakeholders, policymakers and audiences.

I have been successful in securing a considerable amount of funding and many grants, including research funding by the Swedish Art Grants Committee; a fully-funded fellowship at the Royal Asiatic Society, London/New York; The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); grants for the arts by Art Council England; research grants by the Iran Heritage Foundation; an artist residency bursary by Nest, the Netherlands; a research development residency bursary by Imperial College London.

Qualifications and Professional expertise

• Visual Ethnography
• Effective Policy Making
• Participatory Aesthetics Workshop
• Cross-Institutional and International Collaboration
• External Funding Generation

I have successfully held various roles both inside and outside HE. I have worked as a senior curator, module leader in practice and theory, editor of peer-reviewed journals, principal investigator on research projects, PhD supervisor, and project manager. My practice-based research has been enriched through numerous interdisciplinary, international and world-class collaborations across Europe and the Middle East.

In the last 10 years of my career, I have curated various international projects such as conferences for artistic research in higher education's institutes. These include:

• the 9th Society for Artistic Research International Conference at Plymouth University (April 2018) with support from Kingston University London and the Contemporary Aesthetics and Technology Research Programme at Aarhus University (Denmark)
• the 2019th and 2021th edition of the European Artistic Research Network conference (Nov 2019 and January 2021) in partnership with the Slade School of Fine Art (London), the Academy of Fine Art (Helsinki), MaHKU at the Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Valad Academy (Gothenburg), Leeds Art Gallery and Pavilion Arts Centre.

I co-led and organised all the activities relating to the preparation and execution of the event, including the call for papers, partnering with appropriate external institutes in domestically and abroad, submitting funding applications, inviting speakers, publicising the event, managing the budget and booking the necessary equipment. There were seven volunteers who needed to be carefully managed and kept motivated, and this was also a role of mine, alongside the four invigilators of the exhibition. There were visitors from UK institutions such as Manchester University and Birmingham University, as well as many others based in London including Central Saint Martins and Westminster University. The project opened up the discussion to a wider group of artists and academics, and provided a great deal of useful experience and contemporary knowledge to students at the University, specifically in terms of practice-based research.

I have excellent leadership skills and, where appropriate, I am able to motivate and inspire colleagues and collaborators. At the same time, I have worked very well independently, demonstrating a high degree of initiative, resourcefulness, flexibility and creativity, to best meet the needs of the particular role.

In the last 10 years of my career, I have generated income via research contracts, research consultancies and various knowledge exchange programmes. I have delivered diverse practice-based research projects in collaboration with a vast network of academic and cultural institutes, adopting an innovative international and interdisciplinary approach throughout.

I possess solid organisational skills which I use to effectively manage and prioritise workflow to meet deadlines. Throughout my career, I believe that I have developed a solid reputation for successfully and profitably managing numerous concurrent projects through all phases from conception through to completion within targeted cost, schedule and compliance parameters. Sustaining high safety, ethical and quality standards at all times, as well as minimising corporate costs and liabilities, have been visible signs of my professional commitment.

University responsibilities

• Design Enterprise
• University Peer Review College
• KU 22 Research Centre Project
• International Research Lead Design School
• Kingston University Research Ethics Committee Reviewer