Rate My Professor Kit Messham Muir

Professor Kit Messham-Muir is Professor of Art in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, a position he has held since 2019, following his role as Associate Professor in Art from 2016 to 2019. He earned his PhD in Art History and Theory from the University of New South Wales in 2000, with a thesis titled Toward an Understanding of Affect: Transgression, Abjection and Their Limits in Contemporary Art in the 1990s. Additional qualifications include a Graduate Certificate in the Practice of Tertiary Teaching from the University of Newcastle in 2009 and a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours Class 1 from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, in 1994. His career includes Senior Lecturer in Art History and Program Convenor for the Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle from 2008 to 2016, Lecturer in Art History there from 2008 to 2011, and various lecturing roles at the University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, and University of New South Wales from 1997 to 2007. Earlier, he served as Program Manager for Western Sydney Arts Strategy at Arts NSW from 2005 to 2007 and Editorial Assistant for the art theory journal Art & Text from 1993 to 1995.

Messham-Muir's research focuses on art theory, affect, and the visual culture of conflict, including war and post-conflict art. He is Lead Investigator on the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project Art of Peace (2023-2026, $435,984), partnering with the Australian War Memorial, National Trust (NSW), and international collaborators, resulting in the co-curated exhibition Art of Peace: Art After War at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2025. He previously led the ARC Linkage Project Art in Conflict (2018-2021, $293,380), partnering with similar institutions. Key publications include The Politics of Artists in War Zones: Art in Conflict (editor, Bloomsbury, 2024), The Trump Effect in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture: Populism, Politics, and Paranoia (co-author, Bloomsbury, 2023), Images of War in Contemporary Art (co-author, Bloomsbury, 2021), Double War: Shaun Gladwell, Visual Culture and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Thames & Hudson, 2015), and peer-reviewed articles such as 'Conflict, Complicity and Ben Quilty’s After Afghanistan portraits' (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 2018) and 'Dark Visitations: The Possibilities and Problems of Experience and Memory in Holocaust Museums' (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 2004). He has received teaching awards including the Faculty of Humanities Excellence in Teaching Award (Curtin University, 2018), ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2011), and Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence (University of Newcastle, 2009). Messham-Muir has supervised 18 PhD completions and 6 Masters since 2009, directed the StudioCrasher project since 2012, and served on numerous committees, including as Director of Research and Creative Practice at his school since 2024 and Elected Representative for the Faculty of Humanities on the University Research Committee (2018-2021, 2022-2023 as Deputy).