Maia Nichols is a Lebanese American-Canadian dual citizen. She holds a PhD in art history, criticism and theory from the University of California San Diego specializing in 20th century French and North African visual and material culture, and postcolonial theory. She is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in Media Studies at Bennington College.
She holds degrees in psychology and visual art from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and a masters in aesthetics and politics from the California Institute of the Arts. She engages in art practice, and has taught studio art drawing at UC San Diego. Her work has been exhibited internationally. Her art criticism has been published in venues such as Flash Art International, Hyperallergic, and Diagram.
Her dissertation, researched in France with support from a four-year Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship, engages art historical visual and material culture methods and theories to consider the institutional history of French colonial North Africa’s progression to independence during the social psychiatry movement, drawing on a range of archival evidence of material culture and experience.
EDUCATION
PhD, Art History, Theory and Criticism
Department of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego, 2017-2023.
Advisor: Dr. Lisa Cartwright
Master of Arts, Aesthetics & Politics
Department of Critical Studies California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA 2015-2016
Advisors: Dr. Arne De Boever, Dr. Janet Sarbanes
Bachelor of Fine Arts & Bachelor of Psychology,
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. Canada 2009-2013
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, France 2011-2012
Berkeley High School, Berkeley, CA 2005-2009
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Research Award, 2018-2022
Professional Development Honorable Mention in Art History CAA 2021
Graduate Fellowship Initiative Award UC San Diego Graduate Division, 2019
The Andy Warhol Foundation Creative Capital Workshop Award, 2018
Student Travel Grant Award, California Institute of the Arts, 2016
California Institute of the Arts Scholarship, California Institute of the Arts, 2015
Go Global Group Study Programs Award, University of British Columbia, 2012
Go Global International Learning Programs Award, University of British Columbia, 2012
UBC President’s Entrance Scholarship, University of British Columbia, 2009
PEER REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
Nichols, Maia. (title tbd A case study of mortality by cold in Algeria’s Blida-Joinville Psychiatric hospital 1943-1944) Routledge History of the Senses, Andrew Kettler, William Tullet, eds. (Forthcoming 2024)
Nichols, Maia. (title tbd) in Craft and War: Makers, Objects and Armed Conflicts since 1850 Jennifer Way, Julia Krueger, Heather Smith eds. Alida Jekabson, Bloomsbury Press (Forthcoming 2024)
Nichols Maia. 2023. « Approcher l’expérience de guerre des enfants algériens réfugiés (1957 1962). Analyse critique de Comme la pierre est à la pierre et J’ai huit ans », Revue d’Histoire Contemporaine de l’Afrique, Varia, en ligne. URL: https:// oap.unige.ch/journals/rhca/article/view/varianichols
Nichols, Maia. “The fabric of care in French colonial disaster relief: Algerian refugee tents and the soft material culture of the colonial habitus,” The International Society for Landscape, Place, and Material Culture, Vol. 53 (2021), 2, 55-79.
Nichols, Maia. “Identifying with Numbers: A Philosophical and Psychoanalytical Reading of Self-Identification” Studia UBB. Philosphia, Vol. 62 (2017), 2, 1‐13.
Nichols, Maia. “Rogue as Modus Operandi”, The Journal of Comparative Media Arts (2017), Vol. 3. Simon Fraser University.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Bennington College
2023-2024 Visiting Assistant Professor, Media Studies, Bennington College:’ Navigating Institutional media; Creative Practices in Sensory Geopolitics; Materiality and Media; Cartographies of Force: Bugs and Media
University of California, San Diego
2022 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Visual Art Vis 100: Teddy Cruz; Cogs/Design 119 Lisa Cartwright; Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Sociology: Sociology of Humor, Martha Lampland
2021 Instructor, Dept. of Visual Art: Drawing 105B
2020 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Cognitive Science: Design 100, Steven Dow
2017—20 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Visual Art: Vis 159 History of Technology, Benjamin Bratton; Vis 22 Formations of Modern Art, Norman Bryson; Vis 154 Hard Look at the Movies, Babette Mongolte
2017 —19 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Psychology: Psyc 1 Intro to Psychology, Laura Dimler; Psyc 70 Research Methods in Psychology, David Frederick; Psyc 100 Clinical Psychology
2017—18 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Communication: Comm 145: History, Memory and Popular Culture, Patrick Anderson
California Institute of the Arts
2015- 2016 Teaching Assistant and Research assistant, Critical Studies Dept.: Theorizing the Body, Janet Sarbanes
Stanford University
2016- 17 Visual Arts Instructor, Great Books Summer Program, Palo Alto, California