Research Interests
- Sexuality
- Depiction of slavery
- The politics of identity
- Spirituality in the African Diaspora
- Trauma studies
- Psychoanalysis
Education
MSc, Modern and Contemporary Art: History, Curating, Criticism, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland UK
BA, Art History, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
BFA, Studio Art: New Media and Design, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Bio
Julia is a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Modern and Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora. Her research is driven by a strong commitment to highlighting often underrepresented art historical narratives within the African Diaspora, particularly focusing on artists based in the United Kingdom. Julia aims to reveal themes related to sexual violence, identity displacement, and the movement of spirituality across the Atlantic Ocean within the diaspora.
She holds an M.Sc. degree in Modern and Contemporary Art: History, Curating, and Criticism from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Her thesis examined how Operation Peter Pan—a joint initiative by the CIA and the Catholic Church against Communist Cuba from 1960 to 1962—affected the work of the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. Julia demonstrates that Mendieta's subsequent artworks reflect ideologies and iconographies concerning neglect, abandonment, and abuse, shaped by her experience as one of the 14,000 children who became refugees in the United States.