MICRO-BIO

• Elena Gonzales, PhD, is an independent scholar and curator focusing on curatorial work for social justice and the role of museums in society today. Her new book, Exhibitions for Social Justice, is out from Routledge's Museum Meanings series in July...More

  Elena Gonzales, PhD, is an independent scholar and curator focusing on curatorial work for social justice and the role of museums in society today. Her new book, Exhibitions for Social Justice, is out from Routledge's Museum Meanings series in July 2019. Gonzales received her doctorate in American Studies from Brown University in 2015. Her dissertation is entitled Museums Working for Social Justice: Resonance and Wonder. In 2012, Gonzales won a Ford Dissertation Fellowship. From 2011 to 2015, Gonzales was a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University in American Studies. Gonzales received her Masters in Public Humanities from Brown in 2010. She has curated exhibitions since 2006 and taught curatorial studies since 2010. Now, she is co-chair of the Exhibitions Commitee of the Evanston Art Center, where she guides the planning of an annual schedule of 20-30 exhibitions per year. Gonzales is also co-editor of Museums for Civic Discourse: History, Current Practices, Future Prospects, a digital public humanities project forthcoming from Greenhouse Studios with generous support from the Whiting Foundation and University of Connecticut's Humanities Institute.

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EXPERIENCE

• Independent

  • Scholar, Curator
  • Present

EDUCATION

• Brown University, Department of American Studies, Providence, RI

  • PhD in American Studies
  • August 2008 to May 2015

  Dissertation: Museums Working for Social Justice: Resonance and Wonder Preliminary examination fields: History and Theory of Cultural Work with Steven Lubar, Director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage (JNBC) and Professor of American Civilization, Brown University Visual Culture with Douglas Nickel, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University Cultural History of the United States from the Gilded Age to the Present with Elliott Gorn, Professor of History, Brown University Cultural Crossings and Dissolving Divisions: Exploring Race and Ethnicity in America with Matthew Garcia, Assoc. Professor of American Civilization, Brown University

• Brown University, Department of American Studies, Providence, RI

  • AM in Public Humanities
  • August 2008 to May 2010

  Co-Curator, Reimagining Columbus, Reimagining Columbus Day, exhibition October 2010 – March 2011, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University Project Leader and Co-Curator, Public Humanities Student Project 2009-2010 Food On the Move, exhibition and programming, Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson and Wales University Co-Curator, Public Humanities Student Project 2009, exhibition at the JNBC, Providence, RI Remember the Old Times: Cape Verdean Community in Fox Point, 1920-1945 Visiting Artist Mentor, New Urban Arts, Providence, RI, 2008-9009 Co-leader for a high school student project, Core Sample, public program for Art+History exhibition

• Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

  • Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology
  • August 1999 to May 2003

  Cum laude, distinction in all subjects Honors thesis: Vibes and the Residential Experience: Creating a Home at Cornell University

Links

• Elena Gonzales