Sonia Boyce

Professor Sonia Boyce OBE RA holds the Chair in Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London, where she is a core member of the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN). With over 30 years in art education, her practice-based research examines art as social practice through collaborative methodologies and critical examinations of race, gender, and cultural identity.

Her research explores participatory art practices, Black British art histories, feminist theory, and the dynamics of collaboration. Central themes include the politics of representation, collective authorship, and the interplay between sound, memory, and social space.

Boyce's artistic outputs demonstrate sustained investigation into collaborative processes, relational aesthetics, and the archival documentation of ephemeral social exchanges. Her work frequently engages with diaspora histories, oral traditions, and community-based knowledge production.

She has secured significant grants including AHRC funding for 'Black Artists & Modernism' and 'Transforming Collections', which examine underrepresented narratives in British art institutions. Her collaborative project 'The Future is Social' investigated the social dynamics of artistic collaboration through intensive workshops.

Boyce founded the international 'Black Artists & Modernism' research project and currently leads major initiatives reimagining art collections through decolonial frameworks. She supervises doctoral research exploring Black art histories and decolonial aesthetics.