Art Historian, Visual Artist, Researcher
Kate Antosik-Parsons is an art historian and visual artist originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her art practice is concerned with memory and identity. Originally trained as a painter and printmaker, Kate is interested in process and the physicality that accompanies the process of creating. Many of her earlier works incorporate text, images and found materials such as fabrics that build layers of meaning. She is particularly intrigued by the ways in which these materials absorb and transmit familial memory and history. Her visual sensibilities were encouraged by her grandmother, Marcelina Antosik, a landscape painter. More recently, her work has shifted to incorporate photography and has focused on maternal subjectivity. Her research, teaching and visual practice are expressly informed by feminism.
Kate studied painting and printmaking at St. Mary’s College, Moraga. In 2003 she held her first solo show ‘Identity’ in the Front Lounge, Dublin, Ireland.She has completed several commissions: a drypoint for the American Association of University Women, East Bay Branch (2000) and three monoprints for Northgate Information Solutions, Dublin Ireland (2005). Her work has featured in group exhibitions ‘A Womb of One’s Own’ Oldcastle, Co. Meath (2008) and ‘Between Places and Spaces: Landscapes of Liminality’, Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin (June 2014). Her performative photographs were exhibited in Still Life, Gibney Dance, NYC (June 27-29 2019)- a collaborative performance constructed from a participatory workshop organised by the art collective Our Women Before Us. In May 2019 she collaborated with performance artist EL Putnam on the live work 'Mutualism'. Kate's experimental video work 'This Land is Your Land' was shown as part of Manifest Dismantling @Boston Cyberarts (31 Oct-1 Nov 2019). Kate was a performer in Amanda Coogan's live They Come Then, The Birds (2021). Kate's artwork has appeared in Intersections: Women’s and Gender Studies in Review Across Disciplines, Journal of University of Texas (2007) and featured on the covers of two books.
Kate is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research traverses the boundaries across the humanities and social sciences. Kate was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Social Studies (2019 to 2021) in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin. She worked with Dr Catherine Conlon (Asst Prof in Social Policy in the TCD SWSP) on the HSE- Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy (SCHPP) funded Unplanned Pregnancy and Abortion Care project researching people's experiences of accessing abortion care in Ireland since January 2019.
Between April 2019-February 2020 she was the L'Internationale Researcher for NCAD's performance art in Ireland in the 1990s project conducted as part of L'Internationale's 'Our Many Europes'. This research contributed to the Aftereffects and Untold Histories, Politics and Spaces of Performance since the 1990s (NCAD, April - May 2021).She is also a research associate of the UCD Humanities Institute. Her interests include feminist politics, gender and sexuality, modern and contemporary art, embodiment, memory, performance studies, Irish studies and literary and cultural studies.
Kate holds a BA in Art from Saint Mary’s College, Moraga California (2001); an MA in Women’s Studies from University College Dublin (2006) and a PhD in Art History from University College Dublin (2012). Kate was a doctoral scholar in the Graduate Research and Education Programme (GREP) in Gender, Culture and Identity (IRCHSS funded).
Kate has presented her research at numerous conferences including College Art Association (USA), Association of Art Historians (UK), National Women’s Studies Association (USA) and American Conference for Irish Studies (USA). In 2009 Kate worked with the Millennium Court Arts Centre (Portadown, NI) to conduct research for the commissioned Guerrilla Girls Project: Ireland. From 2010 to 2013 Kate was an editor of the peer-reviewed Artefact: Journal of the Irish Association of Art Historians. She has been a member of various professional organisations such as CAA, AAH, IAAH, ACIS, AT Gender, Visual Artists Ireland and the Irish Studies Memory Network.
Kate has conducted collaborative research on leadership and feminist pedagogy in the Dublin Bay North Repeal the 8th campaign on which she has co-authored two peer-reviewed articles, including one in Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics (2022).
I have taught students from a wide range of educational backgrounds and this enabled me to develop a sensitive and inclusive approach to diversity. The same commitment to feminism and equality that drives my research also motivates my teaching. My primary objectives are to aid the development of critical thinking skills, specifically by challenging students to develop a critical awareness and self-reflexivity as socially engaged individuals and to inspire confidence in my students so that they are active participants in the learning process. As an educator I believe the acknowledgement and interrogation of one’s own position of privilege, however great or small, is the first step to fostering understanding, compassion and humanity in students and I strive to communicate this through all aspects of my teaching.
Kate has lectured in Irish Studies, Women’s Studies and Art History at UCD and in Art History at De Anza College, Cupertino and Global Studies at San José State University, California.
Courses Include:
Art History:
Irish Studies:
Women's Studies:
Copyright © 2020 Kate Antosik-Parsons - All Rights Reserved. All images are copyright the artist and may not be used without express permission.
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