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Education:
M.A., Ph.D. University of British Columbia, Canada
Bio:
Jeff O’Brien is an art historian and curator who oversees the Material / Image Research Lab in the History of Art & Architecture department. He is an experienced researcher, having worked with numerous archives and collections in the Middle East (among others, Arab Image Foundation, Ashkal Alwan, Institute for Palestine Studies, and Sursock Museum, Beirut, Darat al Funun, Amman). His research examines contemporary lens-based practices in the Middle East (specifically, the recuperation, repair, and reclamation of images from archival sources), and the wide-ranging forums in which these images are displayed and deployed (from art exhibitions to human rights venues such as the UN). This practice incorporates digital humanities methods and related technologies, including digital exhibits, artificial intelligence, and GIS.
His current project is the Central Coast Native American Modern to Contemporary Art Archive, a digital repository dedicated to increasing the visibility and scholarly recognition of modern and contemporary Native American artists from the Central Coast of California. Currently in development, the archive will be open access in the future, expanding availability for researchers, educators, and the public while addressing the historical underrepresentation of Native artists in academic databases. Since Fall 2023, he has led student researchers in identifying and cataloging over 700 Central Coast Native American artworks, building a foundation for greater engagement with Native art in art history and visual culture.
O’Brien was also a Liu Scholar and curator at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, an interdisciplinary research hub for emerging global issues in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Canada. He has held numerous fellowships, including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Fellowship. From 2018 to 2019, he was the fellow-in-residence of Modern and Contemporary Arab Art at Darat al Funun in Amman, Jordan.
His most recent publications include the book What Are Our Supports? 
(Information Office, 2022), which was shortlisted for the City of Vancouver book award , and “Under-Writing Beirut-Mathaf, Whose Ghosts Must be Summoned” in Inside/Outside Islamic Art and Architecture: A Cartography of Boundaries in and of the Field (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2021). In addition to publishing widely, he is on the editorial board of the journal Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism , and has presented his work and given lectures in the United States, Canada, and the Middle East.
Publications:
What Are Our Supports? co-edited book with Joni Low (Vancouver: Information Office, 2022). 244 pages.
“Under-Writing Beirut-Mathaf, Whose Ghosts Must be Summoned” in Inside / Outside Islamic Art & Architecture , ed. Saygin Salgirli (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2021): 81-97.
“Walter Benjamin’s Allegorical Dismemberment” in Arcades Materials: Blue, Threshold to Cosmos , eds. Sam Dolbear and Hannah Proctor (London: BAPPS, 2019): 135-148.
"Photophobia,” in Choreographies of Resistance, ed. Rehab Nazzal (London, ON: McIntosh Gallery, Western University, 2017).
“Clement Greenberg” in Oxford Bibliographies in Art History , co-authored with John O’Brian and Jessica Law, ed. Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).
“The Taste of Sand in the Mouth: 1939 and ‘Degenerate’ Egyptian Art ,” Critical Interventions 9 no. 1 (March 2015): 22-34.