Defne Oruç was born and raised in Istanbul, and relocated to London in 2018. She is at the early stages of pursuing an academic career, researching alternative frameworks for theorising contemporary art, feminism and photography in Visual Cultures. She holds an MA in History of Art from University College London with distinction and a BA in Fine Art and History of Art from Goldsmiths, UoL.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Defne is a full-time lecturer in Visual Culture at London College of Contemporary Arts. With a background in art-making, her work experience extends to facilitating crits and outreach projects in universities and as part of galleries’ public programs. She was awarded a Junior Fellowship ('22-23) to assist in teaching Extension Year students at Goldsmiths in the Fine Art Department.
She is interested in mediation as a critical device in relation to photography’s role in counter-memorialising state violence across borders, which is the focus of her paper contribution to the 5th edition of Archivo's International Conference. In April 2024, she co-convened the session "Shifting Grounds: Landscape and Cultural Practice in Latin America" at the 50th Association for Art History Conference. Previously, she has delivered the opening presentation of the 2022 Intercollegiate Art History Symposium at University of Chicago,"Penelope in the Present," discussing the subversive potential of weaving as a form of performed thought.
She is currently developing a project that examines how contemporary testimonial narratives in moving image operate strategically not only to diagnose but also to destabilise socio-cultural and political hegemonies. It will take a comparative, decolonial methodological approach to case studies from (post)conflict landscapes in the Middle East, Latin America and their diasporas.
