Darya Aloufy

PhD supervisor: Professor Tamar Garb (primary) and Professor Seth Anziska (subsidiary)
Working title for PhD: Now You See Me: Women Photographing Women in Palestine and Israel
 
 

My PhD investigates how women have been, and continue to be, photographed and represented by women in Palestine and Israel, examining the depictions and constructions of feminine subjectivities in this territory. The research begins with late 19th- and early 20th-century photography, exploring whether photographs of women taken by women before 1948 elude the orientalising gaze that characterises most depictions of indigenous women at the time. It also examines how these photographs might point to connections between women across various communities, challenging the ethnonationalist divides that prevail in the region today. The second part of my research will analyse how such imagery circulates in contemporary art from the region, considering its role in either affirming or challenging dominant historical narratives.
 
My PhD is fully funded by the History of Art Department Research Studentship.

Awards 

• 2024-2027: History of Art Department Research Studentship, UCL
• 2024: Certificate Scholarship, The New Centre for Research and Practice
• 2024: School of Commons fellowship and grant (with Fictioning Lab)
• 2021: Young Curators Academy (digital version) fellowship and grant, Gorki Theater (with Sumac.space)
• 2019-2020: Fer-Garb MA Scholarship, History of Art Department, UCL
• 2016-2017: Dean’s Certificate in Recognition of Outstanding Academic Achievements in the Faculty of Arts, Tel Aviv University
• 2015-2016: Marc Rich Honours Program for the Humanities and Arts, Tel Aviv University
• 2013: International Academic Affairs Merit Grant, Rector’s office, Tel Aviv University
   

Contact: darya.aloufy.19@ucl.ac.uk

RPS Profile

Qualifications 

• BA History of Art and Humanities Studies, Tel Aviv University, 2015-2018 (Magna cum laude)
• MA History of Art, UCL, 2019-2020 (Distinction)