E.C. Feiss, scholar of modern and contemporary art, shows her students how art is involved in the world we live in, not solely decorative or rarefied but as a field that intersects with many others they might be studying or will work in. She incorporates hands on learning in her classroom through seeing works of art up close, both in museums and elsewhere (in the public realm for example) and through meeting working artists.
Feiss specializes in modern and contemporary art of Europe and the Americas in imperial and global contexts, and art theory and method. Her work draws on feminist and historical materialism and critical theories of race, gender, and sexuality. She studies claims for art’s social utility: its revolutionary potential, or as added value in processes of reform, movement work, and procedures of justice. Feiss also writes broadly about art after 1960.