Julia Stachura
Ph.D. Student, art historian, and researcher of contemporary visual culture.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Art History, Doctoral School of Humanities, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, September 2025 (expected)
Doctoral Thesis: Self-Portraiture in Contemporary African-American Photography
Master of Art History, Institute of Art History, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, June 2021
Master Thesis: Out of Disobedience. Self-Shadow in American Photography of the Second Half of the 20th Century
Bachelor of Art History, Institute of Art History, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, July 2019
Bachelor Thesis: On Four Photographs or on the Artistic Language of Robert Frank
HONORS & AWARDS
Fulbright Ambassador
2025-present
Member of Polish Alumni Association
2024-present
Jury Member for the Maria Anto and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven Art Award
2024
Fulbright Junior Research Award, Visiting Student Researcher at Department of Photography & Imaging (DPI), Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
2023-2024
Grant for Internationalization of Scientific Research at the Doctoral School of the Adam Mickiewicz University (IDUB Initiative of Excellence – Research University)
2023
Graduated Summa Cum Laude and received theMedal of Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań for an Outstanding Graduate (top 10 M.A. graduates)
2021
CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE
2025
Julia Królikowska’s solo exhibition “HOST,” held at the historic Villa of the Institute of Art History (former Institute of Microbiology), Wieniawskiego 3, Poznań, Poland, October 1–3, 2025.
Amelia Marzec’s performance and pop-up exhibition “All That Is Seen and Unseen” + “Itinerary Signal Institute,” off-space Wroniecka 15, Poznań, Poland, July 5, 2025.
Julia Królikowska’s solo exhibition “Tender Surfaces,” Fundacja Czas Kobiet / Foundation Women’s Time, Poznań, Poland, April 18–May 26, 2025.
Joanna Czarnota’s solo exhibition “I Remember Through the Image,” held at the historic castle ZAMEK Culture Centre in Poznan, Poland, March 3–16, 2025.
2024
“Shed” group exhibition (Kate Ngan Wa Ao, Ewa Kulesza, Diana Fiedler, Ksenia Pyza, Barbara Stańko-Jurczyńska), Fundacja Czas Kobiet / Foundation Women’s Time, Poznań, Poland, December 20, 2024–February 7, 2025
Agnieszka Grodzińska’s solo exhibition “CUTOUTS & FALLOUTS,” held at the historic Villa of the Institute of Art History at Wieniawskiego 3 (former Institute of Microbiology), Poznań, Poland, October 1st 2024
Jevijoe Vitug’s “In the Real Time” solo show, held at Ankhlave Arts Alliance, Governors Island, New York, United States; August 24–September 18, 2024
“Spiritual Machines” group exhibition, co-curated by Amelia Marzec and Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Flux Factory Governors Island, New York, United States; August 17–September 22, 2024
Joanna Piotrowska’s exhibition “Kochasz ty dom co ciszą swą / You Love Home and the Silence of Its Own,” Fundacja Czas Kobiet / Foundation Women’s Time, Poznań, Poland, June 27–July 25, 2024
Zuzanna Janin’s exhibition “SHAME,” Fundacja Czas Kobiet / Foundation Women’s Time, Poznań, Poland, May 22–June 25, 2024
Kolektyw Pod Ciśnieniem / Collective Under Pressure’s exhibition “Proszę to USUNĄĆ / Please, REMOVE it,” off-space gallery Mielzynskiego 19, Poznan, Poland, organized for Poznan Art Week, May 25–June 9, 2024
2023
Collaboration on the exhibition “Plemię/Tribe” organized with the Intermedia Department of the University of the Arts in Poznan, CK Zamek, June 12–18, 2023
Collaboration with off-space Wołyńska 9, “Motyw płotu w sztuce polskiej / The Motif of the Fence in Polish Art,” Poznań Art Week, Poznań, Poland June 4–24, 2023
Collaboration on the panel “The Traps of Queer-Coding, or How To Build the Identity of LGBT+ Animated Characters,” organized by pozqueer and ANIMATOR Film Festival, Kino Muza, Poznan, 24 June 2023
2022
“Korpal. Organizmy/ Korpal. Organisms” exhibition organized with the Archive of the Faculty of the Arts AMU in Poznan, Stowarzyszenie Łazęga Poznańska, October 4–18, 2022
PUBLICATIONS
Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Dark Room A-Z, New York: Aperture, 2024
Fragments of my essay “A Space for Negotiation: Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s Photographic Portraits as a Reflection on the Image of Blackness and Nudity” were published in Sepuya’s monograph.
Extending Humanity. The Work of Art in the Age of Spiritual Machines, 2024
Text in the exhibition catalog Spiritual Machines, edited by Amelia Marzec (New York: The Laboratory For What’s Possible, 2024), p. 3-7. Exhibition organized by Flux Factory Governors Island, New York City, August 17-September 22, 2024
Archival Bodies in Ayana V. Jackson’s Demons Devotees I-IV, 2023
Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens, no. 57: “Decolonizing Visuality: Looks, Minds, Ways of Thinking and Acting”, NOVA Institute of Communication – ICNOVA of NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal (peer-reviewed)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34619/zrtl-0srk
Double Index. Self-Shadow in American Photography of the Second Half of the 20th Century, 2022
Artium Quaestiones, XXXIII, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM (peer-reviewed)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/aq.2022.33.11
Black Art Matter, 2021
Equality Zine, Red Zenith Collective, pp. 46-47. https://issuu.com/redzenith/docs/equality_10052021
A Space for Negotiation: Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s Photographic Portraits as a Reflection on the Image of Blackness and Nudity, 2020
Widok. Teorie i praktyki kultury wizualnej/View Theories and Practices of Visual Culture, no. 28 (peer-reviewed)
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2023-24 Visiting Researcher
Department of Photography & Imaging (DPI), Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, Fulbright Junior Research Award
2023 Visiting Researcher
John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien, Freien Universität Berlin, funded by Initiative of Excellence – Research University AMU
2021-2022 Researcher
Audiovisual Archive of the Faculty of Arts at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, cooperation in the grant project “Digital Research Infrastructure for Humanities and Arts Sciences DARIAH-PL”. Grant number: No POIR. 04.02.00-00-D006/20-00
2019-2020 Reseacher
Part of the National Development Program of Humanities Grant, “Polish Photographers, Critics and Theoreticians on Photography,” University of the Arts and Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. Grant number: NPRH 11H 13 0125 82
CONFERENCES
ASEEES 57th Annual Convention, 2025
Rhizomatic Sisterhoods: Fiber, Folk, and the Decolonial Feminine in Contemporary Art
SHERA-sponsored panel, virtual, October 23, 2025
2023 Virtual Symposium Photography’s Frameworks
Colonial Congo Re-Imagined: Preserving, Embodying, Stitching
Photography Network and the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town
Art (History) in Educational Contexts, 2023
Teaching the History of Photography in the first half of 20th Century. The Case of Institute of Art History in Poznań
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences / Filozofski fakultet, University of Zagreb / Sveučilište u Zagrebu
Counter-Image International Conference 2022: Photo Impulse Final Conference: Decolonizing Visuality, 2022
(De)colonial Gaze and Archival Bodies in Ayana V. Jackson’s Photographic Self-Portraits
Visual Studies and Media Archaeology Observatory of NOVA Institute of Communication Sciences (ICNOVA), Lisboa, Portugal
Cultures d’exposition: pratiques artistiques et performance dans l’Europe de XIXe siècle, 2022
Exhibiting Self-Portraiture in Contemporary African-American Photography
The University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
Past, memory, history, 2022
Deconstruction and reconstruction of memories in found photographs. Subversive narratives of Weronika Gesicka and Lorna Simpson
Facta Ficta Research Center, Department of Comparative Civilization Studies, Jagiellonian University, Cracow
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2025 Lecturer, Department of Painting, University of the Arts, Poznan. Lecture “Contemporary Art and Painting.”
2024–2025 Lecturer, History Department, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań. Lecture: “Fine Arts in the History of European Civilization.”
2024–2025 Guest Lecturer, Department of Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Lecture: “Cultural Memory: Between Public and Private.”
2022–24 Lecturer, Institute of Art History, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań. Workshop: “History of Modern Art,” lecture: “Empowerment of African-American Photography.”
2022 Guest Lecturer, Department of Photography, University of the Arts, Poznan. Lecture: “Recurring Images – Memory, Body, Photography.”
PRESS
In the Real Time [Exhibition on the island]. Governors Island. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/events/in-the-real-time
MOST Magazine. (2024, November 24). Cutouts / Fallouts – Agnieszka Grodzińska. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://mostmagazine.org/2024/11/24/cutouts-fallouts-agnieszka-grodzinska/
Besson, J. (2024, November 8). Exposer dans des espaces inhabituels : un entretien avec Julia Stachura. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://bessonj.wordpress.com/2024/11/08/exposer-dans-des-espaces-inhabituels-un-entretien-avec-julia-stachura/
Real Tear Blog. (n.d.). HOST [Exhibition page]. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://realtear.blog/host/
Saliva Live. (n.d.). Exhibition details / 05e5ae5c [Webpage]. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://saliva.live/exhibitions/05e5ae5c
Low Ground Pressure. (n.d.). HOST [Blog post]. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://lowgroundpressure.blog/host/
Julia stachura 