Maria Elena Buszek, Ph.D. is a scholar, critic, curator, and Professor of Art History at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches courses on Modern and contemporary art.
Her recent publications include the books Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture and Extra/ordinary: Craft and contemporary art; contributions to the anthologies Punkademics: The Basement Show in the Ivory Tower and Design History Beyond the Canon; catalogue essays for numerous international exhibitions; and articles and criticism in such journals as Art in America, Art Journal, Flash Art, and TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies. With Hilary Robinson, she edited the 2019 anthology of new writing, A Companion to Feminist Art. She has also been a regular contributor to the popular feminist magazine BUST since 1999. Her current book project, Art of Noise, explores the ties between contemporary feminist art and popular music.
Dr. Buszek is also a prolific independent curator, who has previously worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Recent exhibitions include Danger Came Smiling: Feminist Art and Popular Music at the Franklin Street Works, Inner Ear Vision: Sound as Medium (with Raven Chacon and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe) at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and Sensitive Content (with Alayo Akinkugbe and Helen Beard) at Unit London.
In 2022, Dr. Buszek was inducted into the fellowship of the University of Colorado’s President’s Teaching Scholars. The President’s Teaching Scholars Program honors faculty from the university’s four campuses who “embody teaching, scholarship, creative work and research with excellence in all.”