Cogut Institute for the Humanities

Grace Xiao ’24 (she/her) is an undergraduate concentrating in the history of art and architecture, with interests in modern and contemporary art of the Asian diaspora and the history of photography. Her project, tentatively titled “(Dis)location, Diaspora, and the Camera Image: Contemporary Women Artists of the South Asian Diaspora,” draws on postcolonial studies, theories of diaspora, Asian/American/diasporic studies, and feminist theory to investigate the work of Zarina Bhimji and Seher Shah, two contemporary women artists of the South Asian diaspora. Her work investigates the ways that these artists are undermining photography’s historical and continued use as a violent tool for coloniality, as they insert moments of ambiguity and fluidity brought from their diasporic experiences to challenge the objectivity and transparency expected of the medium. As a Community-Based Learning and Research Fellow with the Swearer Center, she has aided in developing coursework that considers how writing about arts and culture can advance public discourse about race, equity, and justice. She has served as a Racial Justice Fellow with the Hay Library and is a 2023–24 Pembroke Seminar Undergraduate Student Fellow. She has also worked across different departments at the RISD Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.