Alexandra Dodd

I am an independent cultural critic and a regular contributor to Art South Africa, W magazine, APC online, Ceramic Review (UK), HandEye (US) and various academic journals.

I am busy with my PhD in English Literature (with a visually-driven topic) at the University of Cape Town in affiliation with the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative. In my research, I am exploring Victorian Postmodernism in Contemporary South African Art and Literature.

Since obtaining my MA in Literature from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, I have lectured in creative writing at the University of the Witwatersrand, edited seven novels, and acted as a judge in the EU Literary Awards and the Mondi Awards.

For several years now, I have been a writer and researcher for the SABC Art Collection, one of South Africa's most substantial public collections.

I have contributed essays to several catalogues on artists including Frances Goodman, Marco Cianfanelli, Sam Nhlengethwa, Zwelethu Mthethwa and Hermann Niebuhr, as well to a hardcover book entitled David Goldblatt: Photographs, published in Europe by Contrasto. One of my essays was featured in Fire Walker, a collection of texts in response to a public sculpture by Gerhard Marx and William Kentridge, published by Fourthwall in 2011. My essay on Terry Kurgan's public art project, Hotel Yeoville, is also due to be published in a book by Fourthwall in 2012.

I was also recently the copy editor on a publication called Shoeshop Reader, grappling with photography, migration and the spatiality of African cities, to be published by Jacana in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut in 2012.

In 2011, I presented a paper grappling with works by Nicholas Hlobo, Mary Sibande and Kathryn Smith at a groundbreaking conference called Love, Sex, Desire and the (Post)colonial, which took place at London University.

In 2007, I was the content developer and editor on the Sunday Times Heritage Project’s interactive website in partnership with the South African History Archive, a new media project that liberated historical treasures from the dusty archives to make them publicly accessible via new technology.

As an independent lonestar, I welcome new creative collaborations and generative transnational connectivities.

I am a paid up member of Greenpeace and regular signatory to petitions by avaaz.com.