Claudia Zapata

Claudia E. Zapata is a former curatorial assistant of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. They earned their PhD in art history at Southern Methodist University’s RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space and Culture program. Their dissertation is titled “Chicano Art Is Not Dead: The Politics of Curating Chicano Art in Major U.S. Exhibitions, 2008–2012.” They received their BA and MA in art history from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Maya art from the Classic period (250-900 CE). Their research interests include curatorial methodologies of identity-based exhibitions, Chicanx and Latinx art, digital humanities, BIPOC zines, and designer toys. Zapata has curated several exhibitions for Texas institutions. They have published articles in Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, JOLLAS, Aztlán, Hemisphere, and El Mundo Zurdo 7.