Jessica Hough
Jessica Hough is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History and a Mellon Fellow in Gender and Sexuality Studies. She focuses on the intersections of art, technology, and activism in the United States in the late twentieth century. Centering radical pedagogical praxes and queer theoretical approaches, her research shows how practitioners appropriated vernacular media for projects of self-determination and world-building. Her dissertation explores how artists, community organizers, and arts educators in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s collaboratively used ‘new’ technologies such as Xerox machines, handheld video, and computers to effect political change in their neighborhoods. Awarded fellowships include the Franke Graduate Fellowship at the Kaplan Institute for Humanities, the COSI Mellon Curatorial Internship in Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Graduate Writing Place Fellowship. She has presented at numerous conferences, independently curated several exhibitions, and held positions at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Berman Museum of Art, Artists Space, Electronic Arts Intermix, and the Smart Museum of Art. Prior to her doctorate, she received a Master's in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s in Film Studies from Columbia University, and a BA in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago. In her spare time, she is a writing tutor with Northwestern’s Prison Education Program, a medical advocate for survivors of sexual violence, and a caretaker of three cats, two elderly rabbits, and many fish.