Isabella Streffen

Isabella Streffen is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at De Montfort University, affiliated with the School of Arts, Design and Architecture within the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities. She leads the MA Contemporary Art Practice and is a specialist in practice-led research, artwriting, and sensory poetics.

Education:

• PhD in Fine Art, Newcastle University, 2012
• MFA, Newcastle University, 2008 (Distinction)
• BA (Hons) Fine Art, Sheffield Hallam University, 2001 (First Class)

Her research centers on the cultural history, politics, and poetics of perception, with a focus on desire, intimacy, technology, and site-specific practices. She explores how sensory experience and textual modes intersect in contemporary art, particularly through experimental writing and hybrid forms. Her work challenges traditional boundaries between art, criticism, and curation.

The most recent publications and creative outputs reflect a strong engagement with interdisciplinary themes such as queer digital ecologies, affective technologies, taxonomies of reading and critique, and the emotional resonance of atmospheric and geological metaphors. Her writing blends poetic form with theoretical inquiry, often exploring the liminal spaces between language, sensation, and embodiment.

Scientific Awards:

• Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2020)
• Newcastle Journal Award, best regional exhibition (2014)
• British Tourism Award, gold (2010)
• Newcastle Journal Award, best regional cultural event (2010)
• Axis MA Art Star Projects (2008)

She supervises PhD candidates including Ottis Sturmey and Harriet Walker, and has been involved in externally funded research such as the AHRC/Arts Council England project Show Me The Money. She currently serves as Internal Verifier for Foundation Art & Design at DMU and External Examiner for the MA Fine Art at Winchester School of Art.

Her artistic projects include Being With: the poetics and proxy-erotics of 21st Century Intimacy and Full Spectrum Metaphysics, both exploring how contemporary technologies mediate human connection and sensory experience. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Library of Congress.