Charlotte Matter

Charlotte Matter (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Art History at the University of Zurich, where she serves as the scientific coordinator of the specialized Master's program Art History in a Global Context. As a founding member of CARAH (Collective for Anti-Racist Art History) and co-initiator of the research project Rethinking Art History through Disability, she has established herself as a key figure in developing intersectional and decolonial approaches to art historical scholarship. Her institutional affiliations include significant collaborations with the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History and the Istituto Svizzero di Roma, where she has held research fellowships.

Matter's research focuses on feminist art and theory, particularly examining how women artists engaged with plastics as feminist substances in the 1960s and 1970s. Her doctoral thesis, The Politics of Plastics: Feminist Approaches to New Materials in Art, 1960s and 1970s, analyzed works by Lea Lublin, Carla Accardi, Nicola L, Margarita Paksa, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Alina Szapocznikow. She has expanded this material inquiry into broader investigations of disability studies/crip theory, intersectional and decolonial methods, and collectivity in art. Her recent scholarly output demonstrates a clear trajectory toward examining the politics of care, accessibility, and the representation of functional diversity in art history.

Her extensive publication record reveals deep engagement with feminist substance theory, disability studies, and the politics of representation. Matter's articles consistently explore how materiality intersects with gender, disability, and decolonial perspectives, often challenging normative frameworks within art institutions. She has been instrumental in developing the field of disability studies within art history through her co-edited special issue of Sculpture Journal on 'Plastic Materials, Plastic Meanings' and her ongoing work with the 'Rethinking Art History through Disability' research group.

• 2022-2024: Co-editor of Sculpture Journal at Liverpool University Press
• 2020-2024: Co-director of the research group Rethinking Art History through Disability
• 2019/2020: Research fellow at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History
• 2018: Archival research in Buenos Aires
• 2016-2017: Assistant at the Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Zurich

Matter's teaching practice reflects her research commitments, featuring courses such as 'Care, Disability and Art,' 'To Mind and To Mend: Anti-Racist Practices in Art History,' and 'Love, Pain, Anger, Joy: Intersectional Perspectives on Emotions in Art and Theory.' She has been instrumental in developing inclusive pedagogical approaches that integrate disability justice frameworks into art historical scholarship. Her field trips to London ('Bodies of Difference: Disability, Art History, and the Museum') and Venice ('The Fraught Significations of Contemporary Biennials') demonstrate her commitment to experiential learning that challenges conventional art historical narratives.