Introducing Professor of Studio Arts and Visual Culture Vick Quezada

Among the new faculty is Assistant Professor of Studio Arts and Visual Culture Vick Quezada, who comes to us after teaching studio art at two of our partners in the Five College Consortium, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Mount Holyoke College. Professor Quezada's appointment is integral to the College's transdisciplinary approach for faculty hiring that focuses on bringing together different fields and disciplines in support of key areas of student inquiry. Quezada is passionate about the classroom as a space to both learn and unlearn about the worlds we live in, as a means of empowerment for students, educators, and the community.

Have you been in any other professions that had an impact on how you teach and learn?

For the last two decades and also prior to teaching, I worked with GLBTQ communities, immigrant farmworkers, communities impacted by AIDS/HIV, and homeless youth in activist and nonprofit spaces. During this time, I gained a deeper understanding of how intersectional oppression converges and differentiates through people’s unique experiences. I’ve found that these experiences have been most helpful in supporting students, but also in integrating advocacy and activism into my classroom pedagogical approaches.

What are you looking forward to at Hampshire?

I’m really excited about the students I get to work with, as well as Hampshire’s support for and commitment to interdisciplinary learning. This method honors students’ diverse learning styles and creates an opportunity for possibilities that extends beyond the classroom.

How do you hope to be involved with our new curricular model?

My practice explores the themes of settler colonialism, the Anthropocene, eco-feminism, and queer identity. These are central in my cross-disciplinary modes of both critical and creative pedagogical practices. For example, in my classes students will examine a range of topics, such as queer histories of activism, the politics of cabinets of curiosity, and performance workshops, each opening a dialogue on power, race, and social formation.

Quezada’s upcoming art exhibits include Underneath Everything: Humility and Grandeur in Contemporary Ceramics, at the Des Moines Art Center and the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and From the Ground Up: Nurturing Diversity in Hostile Environments, at the Armory Center for the Arts, in Los Angeles. Their work will also be on view at the Weil Gallery, in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the Schaefer Art Gallery, on the Gustavus campus, in 2024. 

Their work has been featured in Hyperallergic, BOMB magazine, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Art News, Trans Studies Quarterly, and Remezcla. Quezada received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at El Paso and earned a master of fine arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Vick Quezada's art pictured in the above image is Hermanx​, 15"x 18" x 1", ceramic,  2022.