Margo Machida
Associate Professor of Art History & Asian American Studies
PhD State University of New York at Buffalo
margo.machida@uconn.edu

Margo Machida is a scholar, independent curator, and educator specializing in contemporary Asian American art and art history. She holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor in Art History and Asian American Studies. Her interdisciplinary research draws on social art history, oral history, and ethnic studies in examining the meanings and functions of art as a social object.

Among Dr. Machida’s publications are: Unsettled Visions: Contemporary Asian American Artists and the Social Imaginary (Duke University Press, 2009); the co-edited volume Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes: Conversations on Asian American Art (University of California Press, 2003); “Art and Social Consciousness: Asian American and Pacific Islander Artists in San Francisco 1965-1980,” in Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 (Stanford University Press, 2008); “Icons of Presence: Three Chinese American Artists” in Icons of Presence: Asian American Activist Art (Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco, 2008); “Diasporas in Motion: The Visual Arts and Communities of Affinity,” in Alexandra Chang, Envisioning Diaspora: Asian American Visual Art Collectives / From Godzilla, Godzookie, to the Barnstormers (Timezone 8 Art Books, Beijing, 2008); and “Reframing Asian America” in One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now (Asia Society, New York, 2006). 

Dr. Machida is presently working on her next book, Visualizing the Local: Contemporary Asian American, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Artists of Hawai‘i to be published by University of Hawai‘i Press in 2010/11. Professor Machida is also a recipient of the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the national Women’s Caucus for Art.