Brett M. Van Hoesen

Brett M. Van Hoesen is an Associate Professor and Area Head of Art History in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is affiliated with the School of the Arts within the College of Liberal Arts. Her research focuses on European modern and contemporary art, particularly German art, Dada, photomontage, visual culture studies, German colonial studies, sound art, African art, and museum studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Iowa (2009), an M.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1998), and a B.A. in Art with a minor in Dance from the University of Iowa (1993).

Van Hoesen’s work explores intersections of colonialism, gender, and visual culture. She has presented at national and international conferences and served as a visiting instructor at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Her museum collaborations include internships at Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum, the Walters Art Museum, and the University of Iowa Museum of Art. She teaches courses on contemporary art and has organized exhibitions in Nevada and internationally, including a 2012 course in Torino, Italy. Her writing critiques postcolonial narratives, Weimar-era art, and contemporary African art.

Van Hoesen’s publications analyze photomontage, colonial imagery, and sound art, with a focus on German and African contexts. She regularly contributes to journals like Nka and n.paradoxa, and her essays appear in edited volumes on German colonialism, feminist art, and avant-garde movements. Her doctoral dissertation, Weimar Re-Visions of Germany’s Colonial Past, underscores her expertise in reinterpreting historical art through postcolonial frameworks.

Her professional activities include public lectures at the Nevada Museum of Art and docent training programs. Despite extensive academic contributions, she has not been explicitly mentioned as having received formal scientific awards.