Rebecca DeRoo Headshot

Rebecca DeRoo

Professor

School of Communication
College of Liberal Arts
Program Director- Visual Culture
rjdgsh@rit.edu
585-475-4181
Office Location
LBR-1106

Rebecca DeRoo

Professor

School of Communication
College of Liberal Arts
Program Director- Visual Culture

Education

BA, Bryn Mawr College; MA, Ph.D., University of Chicago

Bio

Rebecca J. DeRoo is Professor and Director of the Visual Culture Program in the School of Communication at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her research and teaching focus on cinema, contemporary art and visual culture, photography, and exhibition studies. Since earning her Ph.D., she has published 2 books and 12 articles and book chapters; coedited a thematic journal issue; received 35 grants and awards; curated or co-curated 6 exhibitions; presented 36 peer-reviewed conference papers and 14 invited lectures; delivered 20 museum or community presentations; and served on 44 graduate and undergraduate thesis and exam committees. Dr. DeRoo is currently researching the art and cinema of Mary Kelly with the support of RIT grants and two American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Fellowships.


Dr. DeRoo’s second book examines the work of multimedia artist Agnès Varda: Agnès Varda between Film, Photography, and Art (University of California Press, 2018; finalist for the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Best Book Award in the field of Moving Image). Book research was supported by fellowships from the American Association of University Women, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the Paul A. and Francena L. Miller Fellowship.


In 2021, Professor DeRoo coedited with Professor Homay King a thematic issue of Camera Obscura titled Future Varda. Her recent essays appear in the anthologies Plaisirs de Femmes and On Women's Films, and in the catalogue Viva Varda! published for the 2023-24 retrospective exhibition at the Cinémathèque Française.


Professor DeRoo’s first book, The Museum Establishment and Contemporary Art (Cambridge: 2006, translated, reprinted 2014), explains how the protests and social movements of 1968 France triggered a radical reconsideration of artistic practice that has shaped both art and museums up to the present. Her book was awarded the 2007 Laurence Wylie Prize for best book in the field of French Cultural Studies. She has contributed to publications including The Oxford Art Journal, Parallax, Studies in French Cinema, Afterimage, and Modern and Contemporary France.

Dr. DeRoo was Community Curator for the major exhibition: Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World, held at the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) (2020-21). Her students’ work was presented in the exhibition, including the digital Map of Change.


She curated the exhibition Beyond The Photographic Frame at the Art Institute of Chicago via a Rhoades Foundation Fellowship; curated Made in France: Art from 1945 to the Present at the Washington University Art Museum; and co-curated with Jurij Meden a retrospective, Agnès Varda: (Self-)Portraits, Facts and Fiction, at the Dryden Theatre, George Eastman Museum (2016). Her grants include Fulbright and Killam Fellowships and a research residency at the French National Institute for Art History (INHA).

At RIT, Dr. DeRoo is Visual Culture Program Director in the School of Communication, Core Faculty in the Museum Studies Program, and affiliated faculty in the Humanities, Computing, and Design Program.

rjdgsh@rit.edu
585-475-4181
Personal Links
Personal Website
Curriculum Vitae

Select Scholarship

Invited Keynote/Presentation
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour." Dryden Theatre. George Eastman Museum. Rocheser, NY. 18 Sep. 2024. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Illuminating Public and Domestic Labor: Mary Kelly's 1970s Feminist Art Activism." Feminist Art History Conference. American University. Washington, D.C.. 30 Sep. 2023. Conference Presentation.
(PanelChair), DeRoo, Rebecca. "Activist Exhibitions." Annual Conference. College Art Association. online, IL. 4 Mar. 2022. Conference Presentation.
Rebecca, DeRoo,. "The Women's Workshop: Exhibitions and Activism." Annual Conference. College Art Association. online, IL. 4 Mar. 2022. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Uncanny Intermediality: Emotion, Identification, and Alienation in Women and Work." Uncanny Intermediality Conference. Centre for Cinematic Intermediality and Visual Culture at the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania. Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 21 Oct. 2022. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Agnes Varda’s Cleo de 5 à 7 at 60." Lecture inaugurating the 60th anniversary of the Ira Holmes International Film Festival. College of Central Florida. Ocala, FL. 26 Jan. 2022. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "‘At the Head of the Table’: Women Art Museum Directors in the 21st Century." Peer-Reviewed Conference Panel Co-Chair, Annual Conference. College Art Association. Chicago, IL. 15 Feb. 2020. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Agnes Varda's Daguerreotypes." Documentary Film Festival. Cinetopia. Edinburgh, UK. 23 Aug. 2020. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Movements for Gender Equity in the French Film Industry." Depts. of French and Cinema Studies. Oberlin College. Oberlin, OH. 9 Oct. 2020. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Multimedia Urban Politics in Agnès Varda’s Daguerreotypes." Dept. of European Languages and Cultures. University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, UK. 6 Nov. 2020. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Recovering Participants’ Public and Private Labor in Women and Work (1975)." Peer-reviewed conference paper. College Art Association Annual Conference. Chicago, IL. 14 Feb. 2020. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Les Plages d'Agnes." In Memoriam Series. Dryden Theatre, George Eastman Museum. Rochester, NY. 6 Nov. 2019. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Daguerreotypes." Cleveland Institute of Art. Cinematheque. Cleveland, OH. 8 Nov. 2019. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Women, Persecution, and Revolt." Panel Chair. Women in French. Leeds, UK. 19 May 2019. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Desire, Resistance, and Power: Agnès Varda’s L’Opera Mouffe." Annual Conference. College Art Association. New York, NY. 14 Feb. 2019. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Documentary and the Multimedia Museum." Annual Conference. Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Toronto, Canada. 14 Mar. 2018. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Challenging Feminine Ideals in 1950s France: Agnes Varda’s Carnet de notes filmees par une femme enceinte." International Feminist Art History Conference. American University. Washington, DC. 30 Sep. 2018. Conference Presentation.
Ulaby, Neda and with Rebecca DeRoo. "The Oscar Elders: 3 Octogenarians Make Academy Award History." Weekend Edition. National Public Radio. Culver City, California. 1 Mar. 2018. Address.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Pleasure, Pain, and Subversion: Agnes Varda's Diary of a Pregnant Woman." Women in French UK. Leeds University. Leeds, UK. 20 May 2017. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Conference Session Chair." Technological Change and Cinematic Hybridity. University of Applied Arts. Vienna, Austria, . 2 Jun. 2017. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Melancholy and Merchandise at the Cartier Museum: Agnes Varda's Island Exhibition." Stan McKenzie Salon Series. Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester, NY. 3 May 2017. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. and Rebecca Scales. "Cleo from 5 to 7." Agnes Varda Film Retrospective. Dryden Theatre, George Eastman Museum. Rochester, NY. 31 Jan. 2016. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Agnes Varda's Le Bonheur." Agnes Varda Film Retrospective. Dryden Theatre, George Eastman Museum. Rochester, NY. 10 Feb. 2016. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Agnes Varda's Multimedia Exhibitions." Department of Art SUNY Buffalo. Streamed at Queens University, Canada. Buffalo, NY. 24 Oct. 2016. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca. "Social Movements, Gender, and French Museums." Department of Art. SUNY Buffalo. Buffalo, NY. 24 Oct. 2016. Guest Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Documenting and Displaying Widowhood: Agnes Varda's Multimedia Exhibition." Film and the Other Arts. Cambridge University. Cambridge, UK. 30 Sep. 2016. Lecture.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Reframing Urban Transitions in Agnes Varda's Parisian Daguerreotypes." Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France Conference. Aston University. Birmingham, UK. 5 Sep. 2016. Conference Presentation.
Rebecca, DeRoo,. "Autofiction and Feminist Strategy in Varda’s Plages d'Agní¨s." Women in French Conference: Feminism, Writing, Art, and Film, 1975-2015. Leeds University. Leeds, UK. 10 May 2015. Conference Presentation.
Rebecca, DeRoo,. "Feminist Documentary and Dialogue in Agní¨s Varda’s Widows of Noirmoutier." Upstate New York Women’s History Conference. Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Geneva, NY. 19 Sep. 2015. Conference Presentation.
Rebecca, DeRoo,. "Panel Co-organizer with Tamar Carroll: Feminist Documentary: Media, Activism, and Art." Upstate New York Women’s History Conference. Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Geneva, NY. 19 Sep. 2015. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Urban Reorganization and Resistance in Agnes Varda's Parisian Daguerreotypes." College Art Association Annual Conference. CAA. Chicago, Illinois. 12 Feb. 2014. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Beyond Documentary: Self-Fiction in Vardas Beaches of Agnes." Feminist Art History Conference. American University. Washington, DC. 1 Nov. 2014. Conference Presentation.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Dialogue with Artist Christine Shank in Conjunction with Her Exhibition Our First Year Together." Special Events. Visual Studies Workshop. Rochester, NY. 4 Nov. 2014. Lecture.
Book Chapter
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "L'une chante, l'autre pas: un film musicale féministe." Viva Varda! Ed. Florence Tissot. Paris, France: Cinémathèque Française, 2023. 172-183. Print.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Pleasure, Pain, and Subversion in Agnès Varda’s L’Opera Mouffe [Diary of a Pregnant Woman] (1958)." Plaisirs de Femmes: Women, Pleasure, and Transgression in French Literature and Culture. Ed. Maggie Allison, Elliot Evans, and Carrie Tarr. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2019. 37-54. Print.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Agnes Varda and Ydessa: Engaging Personal and Cultural Histories." Women’s Films: Across Media and Generations. Ed. Ivone Margulies and Jeremi Szaniawski. London, UK: Bloomsbury, 2019. 147-161. Print.
External Scholarly Fellowships/National Review Committee
3/1/2022 -5/15/2022
     American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant
     Amount: $6000
Shows/Exhibits/Installations
Mullins, Corrina and (DeRoo,advisor). Additions to Map of Change display and database. n.d. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rocheester. Exhibit.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. Community Curator of Exhibition, Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World. 20 Nov. 2020. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester. Exhibit.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. Community Curator of Exhibition, Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World. 20 Nov. 2020. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester. Exhibit.
(DeRoo,advisor), Claudia Paulson. Map of Change in the exhibition Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World. 20 Nov. 2020. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester. Exhibit.
Perttula, Lauren and James Kane (DeRoo,advisor). Brochure Guides Featuring Changemakers. 20 Nov. 2020. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester. Exhibit.
(DeRoo,advisor), Monica Conary. Educational Material for Changemakers Exhibition. 20 Nov. 2020. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester. Exhibit.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. Spirited: Cheers to RIT School Spirit. By Rebecca J. DeRoo, Jennifer Roeszies, and Lisa Witt. 6 May 2017. Imagine RIT, Rochester. Exhibit.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. S.T.E.A.M. Powered Pinball. By Kelli Spampinato, Rebecca J DeRoo, and Melissa Fanton. 6 May 2017. Imagine RIT, Rochester. Exhibit.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. Agnes Varda: (Self)-Portraits. Facts and Fiction. By Co-curated with Jurij Meden. Jan. 2016. Dryden Theatre, George Eastman Museum, Rochester. Exhibit.
DeRoo, Rebecca. Resistance, Rebellion, and Renewal in Rochester: Narratives of Progress and Poverty. By Co-curated with Museum Studies Faculty. 9 Apr. 2015. RIT Museum, Rochester. Exhibit.
DeRoo, Rebecca. Kate Gleason, Visionary: A Tribute on Her 150th Birthday. By Co-curated with Museum Studies Faculty. 19 Nov. 2015. The Wallace Center, RIT, Rochester. Exhibit.
Journal Paper
DeRoo, Rebecca and King, Homay. "Future Varda (introduction to journal issue)." Camera Obscura. 106 (2021): 1-7. Print.
DeRoo, Rebecca. "Agnes Varda: Photography and Early Creative Process." Camera Obscura. 106 (2021): 215-229. Print.
DeRoo, Rebecca. "Agnes Varda and Le Collectif 50/50 en 2020: Power and Protest at the Cannes Film Festival." Camera Obscura. 106 (2021): 127-153. Print.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Metaphor and Memento in Christine Shank’s Our First Year Together." Afterimage 43. 1-2 (2015): 24-27. Print.
Journal Editor
DeRoo, Rebecca and Homay King, ed. Future Varda thematic issue of Camera Obscura. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021. Print.
Invited Article/Publication
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "Agnes Varda: Multimedia Artist." Sight and Sound. (2018). Print.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. "On Agnes Varda, Winner of 2017 Honorary Oscar Award." University of California Press Blog. (2017). Web.
National/International Competition Award Winner
DeRoo, Rebecca J. Kraszna-Krausz Foundation. Finalist, Book Award in Moving Image (Cinema and Media Studies). London, UK, 2018.
Full Length Book
DeRoo, Rebecca J. Agnes Varda between Film, Photography, and Art. print, e-book ed. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018. Print.
DeRoo, Rebecca J. The Museum Establishment and Contemporary Art. Paperback ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Print.
Rebecca, DeRoo,. The Museum Establishment and Contemporary Art. Translation in Macedonian ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Print.
Rebecca, DeRoo,. The Museum Establishment and Contemporary Art. Translation in Albanian ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Print.

Currently Teaching

MUSE-224
History & Theory of Exhibitions
3 Credits
Exhibitions are organized around a creative curatorial premise, a statement that articulates an idea allowing for the selection of work included in an exhibition. This course begins with an overview of exhibition history, starting with the transformation of the Louvre into the first public art museum following the French Revolution, where art history, a discipline developed in the 19th century, was enlisted to organize exhibitions. The class analyzes how art and exhibitions represent the cultural contexts in which they are created. The course examines the proliferation of types of exhibitions that accompanies modernism, up to the present, paying close attention to the curatorial premise animating the exhibitions.
MUSE-388
Gender and Contemporary Art
3 Credits
This course traces the historical development of women’s activism in the art world from the 1970s to the present. We will interpret how this art activism, which artists and scholars alike have referred to as the feminist art movement, has examined how gender informs the ways art is made, viewed, conceptualized in history and theory, and exhibited in museums and visual culture, in a range of cultural contexts. We will also analyze how current artists, critics, and curators continue to build on this history, in particular how they use the concept of gender intersectionally to develop a variety of new creative practices, theories, modes of exhibition and social engagement.
VISL-224
History & Theory of Exhibitions
3 Credits
Exhibitions are organized around a creative curatorial premise, a statement that articulates an idea allowing for the selection of work included in an exhibition. This course begins with an overview of exhibition history, starting with the transformation of the Louvre into the first public art museum following the French Revolution, where art history, a discipline developed in the 19th century, was enlisted to organize exhibitions. The class analyzes how art and exhibitions represent the cultural contexts in which they are created. The course examines the proliferation of types of exhibitions that accompanies modernism, up to the present, paying close attention to the curatorial premise animating the exhibitions.
VISL-320
Contemporary Cinema: Fact and Fiction
3 Credits
We will study cinema in the United States and abroad from the mid-20th century to contemporary screen cultures. We will consider shorts, war documentaries, biographical and autobiographical films, animation, mockumentaries, video diaries, and immersive installations. Questions we will ask include: How does cinema represent or transform social and historical events in local and global contexts? Which ethical and aesthetic responsibilities does a filmmaker have to their audience and filmed subjects? What ethical questions do the films raise for us as spectators? How do we understand the role of media technologies in the making of these films? We will investigate the structures, techniques, and ideologies that identify cinematic practices as fiction or non-fiction and consider films that challenge these representational systems, helping us examine the line between fact and fiction. Students will complete a film critique as a class assignment.
VISL-388
Gender and Contemporary Art
3 Credits
This course traces the historical development of women’s activism in the art world from the 1970s to the present. We will interpret how this art activism, which artists and scholars alike have referred to as the feminist art movement, has examined how gender informs the ways art is made, viewed, conceptualized in history and theory, and exhibited in museums and visual culture, in a range of cultural contexts. We will also analyze how current artists, critics, and curators continue to build on this history, in particular how they use the concept of gender intersectionality to develop a variety of new creative practices, theories, modes of exhibition and social engagement.
WGST-388
Gender and Contemporary Art
3 Credits
This course traces the historical development of women’s activism in the art world from the 1970s to the present. We will interpret how this art activism, which artists and scholars alike have referred to as the feminist art movement, has examined how gender informs the ways art is made, viewed, conceptualized in history and theory, and exhibited in museums and visual culture, in a range of cultural contexts. We will also analyze how current artists, critics, and curators continue to build on this history, in particular how they use the concept of gender intersectionality to develop a variety of new creative practices, theories, modes of exhibition and social engagement.

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