Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Critical theory research group
Leeds School of Arts
Researchers from the Critical Theory Research Group are interested in the discourses, theories, philosophies and politics of the conditions which shape contemporary and modern art practices. Researchers within the group have produced both theory-based and practice-based projects through collaborations with organisations including The ICA, London, The Henry Moore Foundation, and Tate. Dr Kiff Bamford also leads the LSA Slow Research Group, a bi-weekly the bi-weekly reading group for academics and PGRs to discuss ideas relevant to arts practice prompted by a text read together.
The Critical Theory Research Group focuses on the following key strands:
- Contemporary Art Theory
- Visual cultures and philosophy
Critical Theory Research Group Members
Dr Kiff Bamford is Reader in Contemporary Art, with research interests in Performance art and Continental Philosophy. He has published widely on the work of French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard with a focus on the inter-relationship between Art and Philosophy.
Monographs include: 'Jean-François Lyotard: Critical Lives' (Reaktion, 2017) and 'Lyotard and the figural in Performance, Art and Writing' (Continuum, 2012). Bamford edited and introduced the collection 'Jean-François Lyotard: The Interviews and Debates' (Bloomsbury, 2020). In press is a translation of Lyotard’s 1991 work ‘Lectures d’enfance’, which Bamford has co-edited with Prof. Robert Harvey (Stony Brook, New York) under the title 'Readings In Infancy’ (Bloomsbury, forthcoming).
A current project, which aims to debate and demonstrate Lyotard’s continued relevance to the arts and humanities, is the collection ‘Lyotard and Critical Practice’ (Bloomsbury, forthcoming). Co-edited with Margret Grebowicz (University of Silesia, Katowice) this volume will include the work of thirteen scholars, writers and artists together with translations of essays and an interview by Lyotard.
Julia Kelly is a writer and researcher on modern and contemporary art with strong interests and expertise in the histories and theories of sculpture, interactions between art and anthropology, art writing, and the legacies of surrealism. Her publications include the books Art, Ethnography and the Life of Objects, Paris c.1925-1935 (2007), The Sculpture of Bill Woodrow (with Jon Wood, 2013), Giacometti: Critical Essays (with Peter Read, 2009), and Found Sculpture and Photography from Surrealism to Contemporary Art (with Anna Dezeuze, 2013).
Julia Kelly is currently exploring some of the different strands of her research interests: in two anthologies of contemporary sculptors’ writings; in essays on the public sculpture of Eduardo Chillida, on sculpture and chance, on the concept of ‘homeless sculpture’ and on the material properties of mandrake roots; and in a wider project on artists’ collections of ethnographic materials.
Co-Design Research Group Collaborators
Dr Schiffer’s research explores how human-centred design processes can create socially just futures in the context of energy and water access challenges. Geographically her research is located in West Africa, India and Brazil.
