Grant Kester

Chair & Associate Professor, Department of Visual Arts, UCSD

Grant Kester is the current chair of the Visual Arts department and was the director of graduate studies for the Ph.D. program from 2003-2009. Kester is an art historian and critic whose research focuses on socially-engaged art practice, the visual culture of American reform movements, and aesthetic theory. His dissertation examined the relationship between aesthetic and political philosophy in eighteenth-century English culture. Prior to joining UCSD, Kester taught at ASU, WSU, and the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY. He was editor of Afterimage, a visual and media arts journal published by the Visual Studies Workshop. At Afterimage, he established one of the first paid internship in the country for minority writers and editors at an arts publication. In 1986-87 Kester was a fellow in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program.