Rina Arya

Rina Arya joined the University of Hull in 2024 as Professor of Critical and Cultural Theory and Head of the School of the Arts.

Professor Arya received an MA in Theology from the University of Leeds and a PhD from the University of Glasgow. Her research interests include post-war British art; abjection and disgust; theology and visual art; the sociology of the sacred; and visual religious studies. Her main research interest is in the role of the sacred in the arts and culture, especially in contemporary secular culture. Her PhD focused on the expression and experience of the sacred in ‘Death of God’ culture. Since then she has written extensively on the art of Francis Bacon. This developed her interest in abjection and the body, the subject of her 2014 monograph. She is continuing her interest in the relationship between the visual and culture in her current book project on the cultural appropriation of Hindu symbols.