Rate My Professor Nate Harrison

As a Fine Arts professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Nate Harrison is recognized for his contributions as an artist and writer exploring the intersection of intellectual property, cultural production, and the formation of creative processes in modern media. His artwork has been exhibited at prominent venues including the American Museum of Natural History, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Centre Pompidou, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Kunstverein in Hamburg, among others. Harrison has lectured widely, including at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, the Art and Law Program in New York, and SOMA Summer in Mexico City. From 2004 to 2008, he co-directed the Los Angeles-based project space ESTHETICS AS A SECOND LANGUAGE. Currently, much of his intellectual output consists of scholarly writing on IP law and contemporary art, and he is completing a book manuscript on contemporary appropriation art and intellectual property law. Harrison chairs the Media Department and teaches in the areas of Film and Video and Sound at SMFA at Tufts. His interests include digital sound studies and intellectual property.

Harrison earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan, a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts, and a doctorate in Art and Media History, Theory, and Criticism from the University of California, San Diego. Among his honors are the Videonale Prize awarded by the Kunstmuseum Bonn and the Hannah Arendt Prize in Critical Theory and Creative Research from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. He has served in key administrative capacities at SMFA at Tufts, including Dean of Academic Affairs, Dean ad Interim, and Dean of Faculty. Nate Harrison is currently on sabbatical from September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2026, and resides in Brooklyn, New York.