BIOGRAPHY/CONTACT

Anthony Downey is an academic, author, and editor. He is Professor of Visual Culture in the Middle East and North Africa (Birmingham City University). He sits on the editorial boards of Third Text (Routledge), Journal of Digital War (Palgrave Macmillan), and  Memory, Mind & Media (Cambridge University Press), respectively. He is also the series editor for Research/Practice (Sternberg Press/MIT, 2019–ongoing).

In his capacity as a Co-Investigator, Downey is the Cultural and Commissioning Lead on a four-year multi-disciplinary AHRC Network Plus award, where his research focuses on cultural practices, digital methods, and educational provision for children with disabilities in Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Jordan (2020-2024). This award was preceded by an AHRC Development award in 2019.

Recent and upcoming publications include Unbearable States: Cultural Activism and Digital Research Methodologies in the Middle East (forthcoming, 2023); Nida Sinnokrot: Palestine is Not a Garden (Sternberg Press and MIT, 2023); Khalil Rabah: Falling Forward—Works 1995- 2025 (Sharjah Art Foundation, 2022);  Topologies of Air: Shona Illingworth (Sternberg Press and the Power Plant, 2021); Heba Y Amin: The General’s Stork (Sternberg Press/MIT, 2020); Michael Rakowitz: I’m good at love, I’m good at hate, it’s in between I freeze (Sternberg Press/MIT, 2020); Critique in Practice  (Sternberg Press/MIT, 2019); Don’t Shrink Me to the Size of a Bullet: The Works of Hiwa K (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2017);  Future Imperfect: Contemporary Art Practices and Cultural Institutions in the Middle East(Sternberg Press, 2016), and Art and Politics Now (Thames and Hudson, 2014).

For publications, see here.

In 2020 Downey curated Heba Y. Amin: When I See the Future (at the Mosaic Rooms, London), and in 2022, he curated Heba Y. Amin: When I See the Future, Chapter II (Zilberman Gallery, Berlin). He is currently finalising his manuscript for the Unbearable States: Cultural Activism and Post-Digital Futures (forthcoming, 2023).

Anthony Downey, image courtesy of Jens Kohlen, Kassel, 2017

Anthony Downey, image courtesy of Jens Kohlen, Kassel, 2017