University of the Arts London staff research profiles homepage

Dr

Elisa Adami

Research Fellow and Editor Afterall

Central Saint Martins

  • Research Fellow and Editor Afterall
    Central Saint Martins
  • University of the Arts London, Afterall, Central Saint Martins, The Granary, 1 Granary Square, London, N1C 4AA, United Kingdom

BIO

I am a researcher, writer, editor and translator. My work looks at contemporary art practices from the Global South (particularly the SWANA region), de/anticolonial theory and art/experimental writing. The main strands of my research are: 1) archival work that redresses and repairs historical narratives shaped by colonialism; 2) multilingual writing and translation with an attention to minoritised languages such as dialects, vernaculars and creoles; 3) questions of land rights, agricultural commons and sustainable ecologies rooted in Indigenous cosmologies/epistemologies.

 

At UAL, I have been Postdoctoral Researcher-in Residence at the Decolonising Arts Institute (2020–21) and Research Fellow at Afterall since 2021. I am Managing Editor of the One Work and Two Works book series and Editor of Afterall Journal. I am also Managing Editor and contributor of the forthcoming monograph Nida Sinnokrot: Palestine is Not A Garden (Sternberg Press/MIT Press). I have recently translated The Overturned Pyramid, a collection of essays by Italian architect Giancarlo De Carlo, forthcoming with MIT Press. 

 

I completed my PhD in 2019 at the Royal College of Art in London. My dissertation focused on radical historiographical practices in the work of Lebanese artists of the postwar generation. 

 

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Research Fellow and Editor
    University of the Arts London, Afterall Research Centre, London, United Kingdom4 Oct 2021 - present
  • Research Residency Coordinator
    University of the Arts London, Decolonising Arts Institute, London, United Kingdom1 Mar 2021 - 31 Jul 2021
  • Visiting Lecturer
    Royal College of Art, School of Arts and Humanities, London, United Kingdom3 Oct 2019 - 31 Jul 2021
  • Visiting Lecturer
    Kingston University, Fine Art & Art History, London, United Kingdom1 Sep 2015 - 31 May 2021
  • Associate Lecturer
    University of the Arts London, Mres Art: Theory and Philosophy, Central Saint Martins, London, United Kingdom1 Oct 2019 - 30 Nov 2019

DEGREES

  • PhD Critical and Historical Studies
    Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom1 Sep 2014 - 30 Jun 2019
  • MA Visual Culture
    University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom1 Sep 2011 - 30 Sep 2012
  • BA D.A.M.S.
    Università degli Studi di Trieste, Trieste, Italy3 Sep 2007 - 30 Nov 2010

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

  • Supervising Research Degrees
    University of the Arts London, London, United Kingdom13 Mar 2024 - 22 Jul 2024
    Staff & Educational Development Association (SEDA) Professional Development Accredited

LANGUAGES

  • Italian
    Can read, write, speak, understand and peer review
  • French
    Can read, speak and understand
  • Spanish; Castilian
    Can read, speak and understand
  • Portuguese
    Can read

STAFF/STUDENT

  • Staff