Yasmine Espert is an artist and art historian. They’re an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Art & Art History at York University. Dr. Espert is also the Editor of Interviews and Profiles at Seen — a print journal for Black, Brown and Indigenous voices in film, art and visual culture.

Their work on film, photography and the Black diaspora includes “Listening to Revolution” for Artpress, “Can Photography Be Decolonial?” for Public Books, and “Blood, Fire and Interiority in Horace Ové’s Pressure” for Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. For the journal Spectator, they contributed a creative essay on Indigenous and Creole expressions of sovereignty called “Doubout, Kanpe”. Their piece “Schema” was featured in the collection of performance scores called “Propositional Attitudes: What do we do now?”. Other work is published by the Studio Museum in Harlem, Small Axe, and Oxford University Press. Their research is supported by York University, ACLS, Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, Fulbright, and others. 

An example of Dr. Espert’s most recent work is “On Turtle Island, I learned to be as alive as possible” (National Arts Centre of Canada). This essay documents their participation in Stages of Transformation, a QTBIPOC artist project that approaches theater and performance with an abolitionist framework. Their forthcoming publications include The Cinema of Social Dreamers, a book about the Caribbean diaspora for Duke University Press; as well as a book chapter entitled “To risk the sovereignty of our own stories” (The Routledge Companion to African Diaspora Art History).

In addition to contributing to the MoMA's Museum Research Consortium, they were a Research Associate at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, a Visiting Professor at Spelman College, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Espert earned a doctorate in art history from Columbia University.

Their work is guided by research-creation; abolition; Black feminist and queer modes of living; healing justice; radical citation and translation practices; film; photography; the Caribbean; and diaspora. They’re available for select editorial and consulting requests.