Frances Cathryn
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06. About
Research
Writing
Curatorial projects
Editing
Guest lectures & teaching
Bio & contact

Frances Cathryn is an art historian who studies the ways American culture shapes a common understanding of the past. Through her curatorial projects, editorial work, and critical writing, Frances contributes to debates in art history concerning place-based memory, the ethics of representation, and the role of material culture in mediating unresolved pasts within the present. Across her work, Frances emphasizes collaborative and public-facing methodologies that reconsider how historical narratives are constructed and circulated in U.S. art and cultural discourse.


Photograph by Michael Valiquette.

04.Editing

Selected editorial projects:

1. “ʻI Speak for the Forest, for the Rivers, for the Ancestors Who Keep Conversing Through the Mambe’: Aimema Úai paints Murui-Muina continuity,” by Angélica Cuevas-Guarnizo, Forging journal, November 26, 2025.
   
2. “Gagizhibaajiwan, or Living With Paradox,” by Lois Taylor Biggs, Forging journal, April 30, 2024.
   
3. “Speaking With Your Cat: An Artist and Researcher Talk Artificial Intelligence, Community, and Cultural Expression,” by S.A. Chavarría & Scott Benesiinaabandan, Forging journal, January 26, 2024.
   
4. “Radical Indigenous Contemporaneity in ʻKe Aloha O Ka Haku,’” by Dr. Leilehua Lanzilotti, Forging journal, January 8, 2024
   
5. “Asking for Permission/Listening for Consent,” by Anthony Romero, Forging journal, December 18, 2023.