Lina Dzuverovic

Overview

Biography

Dr Lina Džuverović is Lecturer in Arts Policy and Management at the Department for Film, Media and Cultural Studies, an independent curator and founding director of Electra, a London-based contemporary arts organisation. Her research focuses on feminist art histories and contemporary art as a site of solidarity and community-building. Lina founded the Decolonial Feminist Forum at Birkbeck in 2019.  

Previously Lina was Artistic Director of Calvert 22 Foundation, Media Arts Curator at ICA, London, Education Curator at Lux Centre and has taught fine art at University of Reading and Institute for Contemporary Art, TU Graz, Austria.

Selected exhibitions include: “Monuments Should Not Be Trusted” (Nottingham Contemporary, 2016), “Sanja Iveković – Unknown Heroine” (South London Gallery and Calvert 22 Foundation, 2012), “27 Senses” (Chisenhale Gallery, London; Kunstmuseet KUBE, Norway, 2009/10), “Favoured Nations” (5th Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2009), “Her Noise” (South London Gallery, 2005). 

Prior to completing her PhD at the Critical Writing in Art & Design Department, Royal College of Art and Tate (CDA AHRC), Lina studied at The London Consortium (Birkbeck College),  Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design and Chelsea College of Art and Design. 

Web profiles

• Personal Website
• Electra
• Twitter

ORCID

0000-0002-5240-0589

Research

Research interests

• Governance and management of small-scale visual arts organisations
• Art collectives, labour and gender
• Intersectional feminist and decolonial politics in arts policy and management
• Feminist self-organisation
• Politics and mechanics of collaborative work
• Conceptual art, interdisciplinary practices and institutional critique
• Curatorial practice and labour conditions in the contemporary art sector
• Yugoslav art, Student Cultural Centres and interdisciplinarity 1960s – 1990s
• Self-management and cultural politics in socialist Yugoslavia
• The Antifascist Women’s Front in Yugoslavia and its legacies Artistic autonomy, national representation and soft power
• Critical art geography and issues of neocolonialism

Research overview

My research focuses on the field of contemporary art as a site of solidarity and community-building. Through the project And Others: The Gendered Politics and Practices of Art Collectives, I am currently researching the internal workings and division of labour within artists’ collectives, seeking to highlight inequalities, forms of silencing and marginalising of certain participants. 

More broadly, my research interests include articulations of feminist goals in small visual arts organisations, based on my experience of founding and running Electra; intersections of cultural diplomacy and contemporary art through the study of soft-power; the confluence of sound-based practices and contemporary arts networks. 

In 2019 I founded the Decolonial Feminist Forum at Birkbeck which meets regularly at the School of Arts or online. 

As a practice-based researcher and curator my methods usually involve interviews, conversations, workshops, residencies, exhibitions and reading groups, all of which gradually shape the outcomes of my projects. Previous projects which have taken such an approach have included Her Noise, 27 Senses, Archive as Strategy as well as Monuments Should Not Be Trusted emerging from my PhD research. 

Research Centres and Institutes

• Co-director, Birkbeck Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture (BIRMaC)

Research projects

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions external to Birkbeck:

1

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

5

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest.

Current doctoral researchers

• ALAN WARBURTON

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2020 onwards

• CLARE HAVELL

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Sep 2022 onwards

• HAOTONG WANG

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2018 onwards

• RUTH SCHRYBER

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Sep 2018 onwards

Teaching

Teaching modules

• Curating as Critical Practice (30 CATS) (ARMC054S7)
• Freelancers and Entrepreneurs: Understanding Cultural Labour (ARMC124S5)
• Researching Arts and Media (ARMC125S5)
• Curating Culture (ARMC249S5)

Publications