Harriet Riches

Harriet joined ARU as Head of Cambridge School of Art in 2019. After completing her PhD at University College London, she has held academic posts in universities and art schools including University of Warwick, Middlesex University and Kingston School of Art, and most recently as Dean of Academic Programmes at Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts. Her research and supervision interests focus on the history and historiography of women’s art and photographic practice, and she writes regularly on photography for international journals including Source and Afterimage: Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism.

Research interests include:
Contemporary art and photography
History and historiography of photography
Feminist theory and practice
Harriet’s research expertise is in the area of feminist art practice and the history of women’s photography. Her current work focuses on the operation of gender in the historiography and representation of photography (and figure of ‘the photographer’) as medium, practice and technology in cultural discourse.

Areas of research supervision
Harriet has experience supervising and examining practice-based projects informed by feminist theory, as well as theses examining histories and historiographies of modern and contemporary photography. She is interested in supervising projects that examine any aspects of women’s art and photography, particularly those that might investigate issues of gender and identity in the written discourses and historiographies of art, photography and wider visual culture.