Wadham appoints Dr Marko Ilić as new Fellow and Tutor in History of Art

Wadham is pleased to announce that Dr Marko Ilić will be joining the College on October 1 as our new Fellow and Tutor in History of Art.

Dr Marko Ilić is a specialist in recent and contemporary art, with a particular interest in its intersections with politics and history. His work is broadly concerned with how historical trajectories have shaped today’s art world, including a significant strand of research that engages with post-socialist and anti-imperialist contexts and intellectual frameworks. Much of his scholarship to date has focused on the (post-)Yugoslav region.

Dr Ilić is currently working on a major new project with colleague Sofia Gotti, Lecturer in Curating at The Courtauld, which examines the intersections between art and populism. While populism has sparked debate across the political spectrum and become a prominent topic in media and public discourse, it has rarely been addressed in art history or curatorial studies – at least not in a systematic way. This project breaks new ground by applying populism as a critical lens through which to examine what is recognised as populist, and what political implications this carries for cultural institutions, art practices, and curating.

Before joining Oxford in 2023, Marko was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at University College London and lectured at The Courtauld, Newcastle University, and the Universities of Cambridge and York.

Welcome Marko!