Dr Amy Charlesworth
Lecturer In Art History
Biography
Professional biography
BA (Hons) Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art, MA History of Art, PhD History of Art (University of Leeds)
I joined the Open University in January 2015 having previously taught at the University of Leeds, Loughborough University and the University of Bradford. I have also worked for a number of organisations in the arts and culture sector.
Research interests
I work on modern and contemporary art. My research interests include the relationship between experimental film history and the moving image in art history. My focus on moving-image art is also enhanced by my interest in photography theory. More broadly, my research is concerned with realism and representation, particularly as it relates to class and gender, race and sexuality and how this is mediated by lens-based imagery at the intersection of art and wider conceptions of visual media. I have developing interests in the digital humanities, disability and the arts and questions of feminisms and ecology as they relate to histories of Land art.
Teaching interests
I have worked as the module team chair for our MA in Art History. I am a contributing author to the third-year level A344 Art and its Global Histories and Subject and worked as discipline lead on our interdisciplinary level one module, A111 Discovering the Arts and Humanities. I have also chaired AA318 Art of the Twentieth Century. From 2016 -2018 I was also part of the steering group for Open Arts Objects, short (open access) films with teaching support material dedicated to the objects of art history and the skills of visual analysis. I am currently working on module development and production.
Students who are interested in working on doctoral projects on modern and contemporary art history and theory, moving-image art, feminism, art and politics, lens-based media, or performance should please email me.
Impact and engagement
Between 2013 and 2018 I worked with the grass-roots national campaign group The Voice of Domestic Workers. In 2016, a film made through this collaboration, They Call Us Maids: The Domestic Workers' Story, along with the arts organisation Pavilion, Leeds Animation Workshop, and artist Rehana Zaman, was shortlisted for the AHRC Research in Film Awards. The film has been shown worldwide, used to inform policy discussions by the campaign group, secured awards (one being the best short on modern-day slavery) and screened at Tate Britain in 2024.
External collaborations
External Examiner for Fine Art (BA Hons) (Art History component), Newcastle University, 2018 - 2021
Academic Reviewer for Leeds City College 2017 - 2019
Projects
AHRC CHASE small project fund
Funding is required to institute a new network around the theme of ‘Working Images’. Over the past ten years, Dr Amy Charlesworth has worked collaboratively with Dr Gill Park (University of Leeds) on a series of public visual arts events, film screenings and exhibitions addressing the ways in which feminist cultural theory and visual art practices speak to the very real lived experiences of women in precarious working conditions, and gendered/racialised forms of labour in the 21st century as well as how this relates to previous struggles throughout the 20th century. Funding would contribute to four workshops which would bring together a formal network of academics, third sector organisations and individuals invested in questions about women and work, the politics of the image and the role that caring plays as a site of protest. The aim of these workshops is to kickstart a conversation that will work towards funding bids, publishing and public programming that will result in a significant piece of practice-led research on the theme of ‘Working Images’.
