Victoria Horne

I'm an art historian specialising in the cultural and intellectual history of Anglo-American feminism. After completing my PhD in 2014, I was Teaching Fellow at University of Edinburgh and Paul Mellon Centre Postdoctoral Fellow, before joining Northumbria's Visual and Material Culture Group in 2016. 

I’m an art historian specialising in the cultural and intellectual history of Anglo-American feminism. I tend to write about the mechanisms and infrastructures through which artistic and intellectual communities are formed, and I’m interested in artworks that also reflect on these historical concerns. My research has been published in Art History, Journal of Art Historiography, Journal of Visual Culture and Feminist Review, while I regularly write shorter pieces and reviews for publications incl. MAP and Burlington (Contemporary).

For the past few years I’ve been researching the feminist art press, positioning it as a galvanising force in the UK women’s art movement of the 1970s to 1990s. This material forms of the basis of the monograph, If We Don’t Write It Nobody Will! Feminist Arts News and the UK Women’s Art Movement (currently in progress). In addition to convening conferences on the subject, I’m editing a volume of essays exploring grassroots, artist-led publishing and how it reshaped the cultural landscape in Britain and beyond, in Counter Print: The Alternative Art Press in Britain after 1970.

I previously edited a special issue of Women: A Cultural Review on the theme, ‘Danger! Women Reading: Feminist Encounters with Art, History and Theory’ (vol. 30 no.3, Oct 2019), and co-edited with Lara Perry the book, Feminism and Art History Now (2017, reissued 2022). My research has received funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Association for Art History.

At Northumbria, I have taught historical and critical studies to students of Graphic Design, Fine Art and Film, as well as convening masters-level modules and supervising doctoral students. Since 2022 I have been Postgraduate Research Lead for Fine Art and from 2023 will be PGR Lead for the Department of Arts. I have co-ordinated the Visual and Material Culture Group’s since 2017, hosting almost 40 research seminars.

I am co-editor of Visual Culture in Britain and sit on the editorial board of Art History. 

If you’re a prospective PhD student please feel free to contact me, especially those interested in in studying feminist visual culture and theory, art historiography, periodical culture or institutional critique.

PhD, University of Edinburgh, 2014.
MA, University of Manchester, 2009.
BA, Queen's University Belfast, 2008.

Current PhD supervision: 

2024- : Shona MacNaughton, 'Respeaking Women's Health Activism' (RDF funded)

2022- : Rachel Boyd, 'Historicising Nerys Johnson; (Northern Bridge CDA)

Prior PhD supervision:

2021-24: Sonny Ruggiero (University of Edinburgh), "The Magazine with Heart: A history of Spare Rib ". Co-supervisor (external). 

2017-2021: James Bell, "Queering archives and archiving queers". Submitted April 2021. (RDF funded)

External roles:

2024-27: External Examiner, MA History of Modern and Contemporary Art, Courtauld Institute. 

2020-24: External Examiner, MA History of Art, University of Glasgow.