Irit Rogoff

Irit Rogoff is a Professor of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a foundational figure in transdisciplinary Visual Culture studies. She initiated the Visual Cultures department at Goldsmiths and has held a visiting chair at Aalto University (2012–2016). Her work bridges academic research, curation, and public pedagogy, focusing on geography, globalization, and participatory practices.

Education: PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art (1987), researching German modernist self-portraiture. She taught at UC Davis (1989–1997) before joining Goldsmiths in 1997, where she established doctoral programs like ‘Curatorial/Knowledge’—the first PhD program theorizing the curatorial.

Research interests include counter-cartography, global art circuits, and the ‘Educational Turn’ in contemporary art. Key projects include the Bergen Assembly (2016) with freethought collective, and exhibitions like A.C.A.D.E.M.Y (2005–2006), exploring learning within institutional contexts. She directed the AHRC-funded ‘Translating the Image’ research center (2000–2005).

Professional projects emphasize curatorial experimentation and public study platforms. Notable contributions include writings on globalization, curatorial practices, and critical pedagogy. Rogoff’s work interrogates how knowledge is produced through art, activism, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Labs/Teams: Co-founder of the freethought collective (2011), involved in projects like the Bergen Assembly’s ‘Infrastructure’ theme (2016) and the ‘Infrastructural Condition’ publication (2017–2018). Her teaching focuses on globalization, curatorial theory, and doctoral supervision in critical epistemology.