Hattie Spires

Hattie Spires is a PhD Candidate and Associate Lecturer at The Courtauld Institute of Art, specializing in transnational art history with a focus on Pan-African cultural networks. Her research examines how ideas from the Harlem Renaissance influenced British and Commonwealth art practices, challenging Eurocentric modernist narratives. She is funded by an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with Tate, investigating cross-cultural exchanges through art, music, and political movements.

Education:

• PhD Candidate, The Courtauld Institute of Art (2021–present)
• M.A. Twentieth Century Art History, Goldsmiths College, University of London
• Postgraduate Diploma in Arts Management, Birkbeck College, University of London
• B.A. History & Theory of Art and English Language, University of Kent

Research Interests:

• Reconfiguring modernist art histories through Pan-African perspectives
• Transatlantic cultural exchanges between the US, UK, and Caribbean
• Racial politics in 20th-century art
• Museum curation and decolonizing collections

Teaching & Curatorial Work:

• Associate Lecturer: 'Topics: Contemporary Art in London Collections' (The Courtauld, 2024–25)
• Guest Lecturer: MA Black Futures (The Courtauld, 2025) and Global African Arts (CIEE, 2023–24)
• Curator: Festival UK 2022 (Tate collaboration), Tate Britain (2019–21), and Hayward Touring exhibitions (2010–16)

Awards:

• 2024: Centre for the Art of the Americas Research Travel Grant
• 2023: Paul Mellon Centre Research Support Grant
• 2021–2025: AHRC CDP Studentship