My current research focuses on exploring art and migration from feminist and decolonial perspectives, with a special focus on the Middle East. I am co-editor of the anthology ‘Art, Borders and Belonging: On Home and Migration’ (Bloomsbury 2021). I organised the 2022 international online Symposium titled 'Creative Homemaking: Visualising Home in Times of Crisis', which was funded by the UoD’s Participatory Fund.I am currently convening the panel ‘Exploring gender-based violence in feminist art’ for the 2024 Association for Art History’s Annual Conference.
I oversee the development, delivery, and evaluation of the PGR development programme. This is a rich schedule of training and events for PGR students from all Colleges. The programme includes the PGR training, PGR Cafes, PGR Writing Retreats, annual PGR Conference, peer-led workshops, PGR Socials, Images of Research, 3 Minute Thesis Competition, and the EMDoc Conference.
I joined the University of Derby in 2016, having previously worked at Loughborough University as an Associate Lecturer in Critical and Historical Studies. In 2013 I was an AHRC Cultural Engagement Research Fellow at Loughborough University where I developed the funded project Visual Narratives of Homeland.
Research interests
My research is currently focusing on two key areas:
Revisiting art histories from a feminist perspective
I initially explored these issues in my doctoral thesis, ‘Rethinking the History of Cypriot Art: Greek Cypriot Women Artists in Cyprus’, where I provided a critical analysis of women’s art and presented different perspectives in acknowledging women’s contribution in art history. My work has impacted international conversations that explore similar perspectives on equity, belonging and social justice. For example, my work was cited by researchers who explored the ‘absent’ history of women artists in the male-dominated art histories of Iran.
Investigating Art and Migration from feminist and decolonial perspectives
In my research I explore how contemporary art practices engage with the concepts of ‘home’, ‘migration’ and the sense of ‘belonging’. My current research explores the work of exiled women artists and their experience of forced displacement, citizenship, identity and belonging. I examine artistic practices that are located within different histories of exile but share common concerns with the site of the home of origin that refugees have been forcefully displaced from. I explored these issues in my postdoctoral research project ‘Narratives of Contested Lands’, which was funded by an AHRC Cultural Engagement Fund. This was a collaborative project with the International Network Project ‘Lens of Empowerment’.
In 2022, I convened and chaired the international virtual Symposium ‘Creative Homemaking: Visualising Home in Times of Crisis’, which was funded by the UoD’s Participatory Fund. This led to the co-authorship of a text with artist Lia Lapithi (upcoming with Bloomsbury Visual Arts).
I am a reviewer of book proposals for Bloomsbury, Routledge, and Manchester University Press.
I am co-leading the Places and Spaces Research Cluster.
'Sailing to my Nearest Neighbours for Lockdown Cocktails: Reflections on the Politics of Home and Homemaking during a Pandemic' in The Artist at Home: Studios, Practices and Identities, cowritten with artist Lia Lapithi (forthcoming in 2024 with Bloomsbury).
'National Identity and the Politics of Belonging in Greek Cypriot Visual Culture', in Flags, Color, and the Legal Narrative, eds. Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek (Springer, 2021)
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Photiou, M. (forthcoming) 'Re-claiming the lost home: The politics of nostalgia and belonging in women's art practices in the Middle East' in Image & Text.
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
Member of the Association for Art History (AAH)
Professional interests
PGR student experience
Postgraduate researcher development
Belonging in Postgraduate Research
Qualifications
PhD in Contemporary Art History, Loughborough University
MA in Histories of Art and Design, Birmingham City University
BA in Art and Art History, Academia di Belle Arti di Roma, Italy
Recent conferences
10/2023 ‘Art Representing War and Crisis: Exploring Themes and Experiences’, Conference Understanding Displacement in Visual Art and Cultural History: 1945 to Now, University of Manchester.
11/2022 ‘Re-claiming the Lost Home: The Politics of Nostalgia and Belonging in Women’s Art Practices in the Middle East’, Conference Hitting Home: Representations of the Domestic Milieu in Feminist Art, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
04/2022: Invited Guest Lecturer ‘Mapping the Border: Women Artists’ Reconceptions of Space, Gender and Representation', The University of Hong Kong.
11/2021: ‘Sailing to my Nearest Neighbours for Cocktails: Reflections on Homemaking During a Pandemic’, Home and Covid-19: Dwelling and Belonging in Pandemic Times Online Symposium, The Museum of Home, London.
07/2021 'Placemaking and Artistic Practices of Embodiment in a Divided City', Civic LAB Online Symposium, University of Derby.
04/2021 'Strolling Along the Green Line: Exploring Narratives of Exile, Identity and Belonging Within a Divided Capital', Exiled and Female: Visualising Identity in the Work of Women Artists panel at the Association for Art History 2021 Online Annual Conference.
04/2019 ‘Weaving Together: Narratives of Home, Exile and Belonging’, Diasporic Imaginaries. Multiple Senses of Belonging, DFK Paris.
04/2018 ‘Weaving in Exile: Exploring Narratives of Migration and Loss’, Textile and Place Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University.
11/2017 ‘There will be no Homecoming: Visual Narratives of Home, Exile and Belonging’, Conflict and/or (Be)longing: Thinking with Stories and Images, University of Lisbon.
02/2017 ‘Home, Exile and the Politics of Belonging’, AAH (Association for Art History) 43rd Annual Conference, Loughborough University.
12/2014 ‘Photographic Practices of Homeland: Re-presentations of Home, Location and Identity’, 3rd International Conference of Photography and Theory, Cyprus.
09/2014 ‘Be/come Closer to Home’, Trans-Figurations: Feminism, Art and Global Futures Symposium, New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester.
02/2011 ‘Reviving Koukkoumara Tradition through Self-Expression: The Greek Cypriot artist Nina Iacovou and her Female Figure Vessels’, CAA (College Art Association) 99th Annual Conference, New York.
Other Conferences
06/2021Photiou M, Radford N, Lynch T.P ‘Supporting Community Belonging and Building Sustained Cohort Identity Among PGR Students’, UKCGE Annual Conference.
I was invited by CivicLeicester to be a speaker at the panel discussion 'Palestine In Focus: Forced Migration and The Arts'.
In my contribution I contextualised Palestinian women's artistic work outside of Palestine. Specifically I talked about the work of Emily Jacir that I analysed in my edited volume Art, Borders and Belonging: On Home and Migration.
I was invited by Histories of bahces (a group of young scholars in Cyprus who created an open space to discuss challenging questions in relation to Cyprus’s complicated history) to talk about Cypriot women artists and their position in the male-dominated art history.
I was invited by the ERC project HOMinG (based at the University of Trento, Italy) to talk at their webinar series about my research and the book I co-edited.
I welcome PGR candidates whose research projects fall within my areas of expertise, including, but not limited, on:
Gender studies
Contemporary Art
Migration Studies
Visual Arts
Feminist Art History
Experiences of migration and belonging
Experiences of home and homemaking
Additional interests and activities
Research funding and awards
2022: ‘Women and Domestic Violence: What has changed’
Participatory Research Fund, University of Derby
April 2022 to July 2022
2021-2022:‘Creative Homemaking: Visualising Home in Times of Crisis’
Participatory Research Fund, University of Derby
September 2021 to March 2022
2012-2013: ‘Narratives of Contested Lands’ postdoctoral project
Awarded by AHRC Cultural Engagement Fund (Loughborough University)
February 2013 to May 2013
2008-2012: PhD scholarship awarded by Loughborough University
Selected knowledge exchange projects
11/2022:Mush(Rooms): Home, Resilience, and Community, co-created project with Derby Museums that was part of the 2022 Being Human Festival, a free nationwide festival showcasing humanities research to a wider audience.
07/2022: ‘'On the move with Felix Nussbaum', Guest speaker at Artcore Gallery Derby.
06/2022: ‘Women and Domestic Violence: What has changed’, Screening and Panel Discussion at Quad, Derby.
04/2022: Online Symposium Creative Homemaking: Visualising Home in Times of Crisis, University of Derby.