Dr Ros Gray

Staff details

Position

Reader in Fine Art, Critical Studies

Department

Art

Email

r.gray (@gold.ac.uk)

Links

Instagram
@ma_art_and_ecology

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Centre for Art and Ecology

Ros's engagement with art, ecology and climate justice involves collaborations with artists, scientists and activists.

Ros is Reader in Fine Art, Critical Studies and Programme Director of the MA Art & Ecology. Her research and teaching often involves collaborations with artists, scientists and activists, addressing ecological emergency with an emphasis on climate justice. Coming to ecology from a background researching militant filmmaking, she is interested in decolonial, eco-feminist and queer approaches to ecological stewardship.

Ros is on the Editorial Board of Third Text and is co-commissioning editor of the Goldsmiths Press book series Planetarities. She has organised numerous international conferences and film screening programmes, public engagement relating to soil care and climate change, and she was commissioned to make the podcast ‘The Coloniality of Planting’ by Camden Art Centre for the series Botanical Minds. Ros has coordinated the Goldsmiths Allotment since 2016 and she is currently leading the development of the Art Research Garden and Laboratory.

Academic qualifications

Doctorate (PhD), Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London 2007
MA Cultural Studies with Distinction, Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London 2001
MA English Language and Literature, St Anne's College, University of Oxford 1994

Teaching and supervision

I am currently supervising the following doctoral students:

Morag Colquhoun, Department of Art, Goldsmiths
Gerard Ortin, Department of Art, Goldsmiths (Berlin Biennale, 2022)
Borbala Soos, Department of Art, Goldsmiths
Marie-Alix Isdahl, Department of Art, Goldsmiths
Sophie Williamson, Department of Art, Goldsmiths

MA Art & Ecology

Research interests

Ros’s research focuses on art, ecology and planetarity, particularly artistic approaches to environmental crisis involving soil care, cultivation and rewilding, with a focus on eco-feminist, climate justice, queer and crip approaches. She is currently developing a new research project, with the working title Arts of Planetary Rewilding.

Recent publications include essays in Anthony Downley (ed), Palestine Is Not a Garden (forthcoming), Edward Chell, Transports of Delight (forthcoming), Carl Gent, Felon Herb (Kelder, 2021), and Elin Wagner and Elisabeth Tamm, Peace with the Earth (2021).In 2021-2022 she was Principal Investigator on the Natural Environment Research Council Creative Climate Partnership Sensing Soil, which initiated the first artist residency in the Art Research Garden at Goldsmiths. In 2020 she was commissioned with Dr Shela Sheikh by Camden Art Centre to produce the podcast The Coloniality of Planting, as part of their Botanical Minds. This built on previous writing and research that examined the legacies and contemporary impacts of economic botany and colonial planting regimes, particularly the Third Text special issue The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions that she co-edited in 2018. Ros’s approach to ecology is grounded in her research background.

For more than fifteen years, she researched militant filmmaking networks dedicated to anti-colonial revolution and decolonisation, which after numerous articles, book chapters and curation of film programmes and public events culminated in her monograph Cinemas of the Mozambican Revolution: Anti-colonialism, Independence and Internationalism in Filmmaking, 1968-1991 (James Currey, 2020). Ros has published a pamphlet of poetry titled Comma (Earthbound Press, 2021), which addresses themes of chronic illness, expanding and contracting lifespans and more-than-human ecological relation.

Grants and awards

2022: 'Sensing Soil' Creative Climate Collaboration: COP 26 Environmental Science Public Engagement
Sensing Soil Creative Climate Collaboration established a partnership between Dr Ros Gray, soil scientist Dr Jacqueline Hannam, artist Harun Morrison and Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network.

Publications and research outputs

Book

Cinemas of the Mozambican Revolution: Anti-Colonialism, Independence and Internationalism in Filmmaking, 1968-1991 Gray, Ros . 2020. Cinemas of the Mozambican Revolution: Anti-Colonialism, Independence and Internationalism in Filmmaking, 1968-1991. Martlesham: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781847012371

Book Section

The Art of Planetary Rewilding Gray, Ros . 2026. The Art of Planetary Rewilding. In: Anthony Downey, ed. Nida Sinnokrot: Palestine Is Not a Garden. Berlin: Sternberg Press. ISBN 9783956796302
Eating as Planetary Bodies Gray, Ros . 2025. Eating as Planetary Bodies. In: Alon Schwabe and Daniel Fernandez Pascual, eds. Cooking Sections: Waves Lost at Sea. Santander: Fundación Botín/Spector Books. ISBN 9783959059107
Rewilding After Imperial Ecology Gray, Ros . 2025. Rewilding After Imperial Ecology. In: Adriano Pedrosa and Andre Mesquita, eds. Historias da Ecologia: Antologia. São Paulo: Museo de Arte de São Paulo. ISBN 9786557770863

Unlearning with Materials Gray, Ros ; and Thoms, Jol . 2024. Unlearning with Materials. In: UNSPECIFIED, ed. Making Time Volume 1. London: Artangel, pp. 39-42.
Reclaiming the Commons: Re-enchanting the Commons Gray, Ros . 2023. Reclaiming the Commons: Re-enchanting the Commons. In: Alona Pardo, ed. RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology. Munich/London: Prestel Verlag in association with Barbican Art Gallery, pp. 249-280. ISBN 9783791379722
Everyone on deck! Gray, Ros . 2022. Everyone on deck! In: Edward Chell, ed. Transports of Delight. ISBN 9781739186104
Vous n'avez jamais entendu parler d'internationalisme?: Les amitiés socialistes du cinéma mozambicain [translation] Gray, Ros . 2021. Vous n'avez jamais entendu parler d'internationalisme?: Les amitiés socialistes du cinéma mozambicain [translation]. In: Maria-Benedita Basto; Françoise Blum; Pierre Guidi; Héloïse Kiriakou; Martin Mourre; Céline Pauthier; Ophélie Rillon; Alexis Roy and Elena Vezzadini, eds. Socialismes africains / Socialismes en Afrique. Paris: Les Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme. ISBN 9782735126989
Re-Reading the Pamphlet: A Contextualising Conversation Elzén, Asa; Gray, Ros ; and Sonjasdotter, Asa. 2021. Re-Reading the Pamphlet: A Contextualising Conversation. In: Asa Sonjasdotter, ed. Peace with the Earth. Berlin: Archive Books, pp. 113-150. ISBN 9783948212810
Strangling the Parrot Gray, Ros . 2021. Strangling the Parrot. In: UNSPECIFIED, ed. Felon Herb. London: Kelder Press, pp. 21-36. ISBN 9781838199012
Fugitive Remains: Soil, Celluloid and Resistant Collectivities Sheikh, Shela ; Gray, Ros ; Wolf, Nicole ; César, Filipa; Grisey, Raphaël; and Touré, Bouba. 2018. Fugitive Remains: Soil, Celluloid and Resistant Collectivities. In: Cooking Sections, ed. The Empire Remains Shop. New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, pp. 209-223. ISBN 978-1-941332-37-5
Clear Lines of an Internationalist Map: Foreign Filmmakers in Angola at Independence [English translation] Gray, Ros . 2017. Clear Lines of an Internationalist Map: Foreign Filmmakers in Angola at Independence [English translation]. In: Maria do Piçarra and Teresa Castro, eds. (Re)Imagining African Independence: Film, Visual Arts and the Fall of the Portuguese Empire. Oxford: Peter Lang. ISBN 9781787076396
Decolonisation Gray, Ros . 2016. Decolonisation. In: Sangeeta Ray and Harry Schwarz, eds. The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4443-3498-2
Você já ouviu falar de internacionalismo? As amizades socialistas do cinema moçambicano [translation] Gray, Ros . 2016. Você já ouviu falar de internacionalismo? As amizades socialistas do cinema moçambicano [translation]. In: Lucia Monteiro, ed. África(s): Cinema e revolução: As Independências de Angola, Guiné-Bissau e Moçambique em filmes de luta e memória (catálogo de mostra de cinema, realizada no cinema Caixa Belas Artes, São Paulo, de 10 a 23 de novembro de 2016). São Paulo: Caixa Belas Artes.
Linhas Claras num Mapa Internacionalista: Cineastas Estrangeiros em Angola durante a Independência Gray, Ros . 2015. Linhas Claras num Mapa Internacionalista: Cineastas Estrangeiros em Angola durante a Independência. In: Maria do Carmo Piçarra and Jorge Antonio, eds. Angola - O Nascimento de Uma Nação: O Cinema da Independência. 3 Lisbon: Guerra & Paz.
Haven’t you heard of internationalism?: The Socialist friendships of Mozambican cinema Gray, Ros . 2012. Haven’t you heard of internationalism?: The Socialist friendships of Mozambican cinema. In: Lars Lyngsgaard and Fjord Kristensen, eds. Postcommunist Film - Russia, Eastern Europe and World Culture: moving images of postcommunism. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 53-74. ISBN 9780415671644
Dreaming of Islands Gray, Ros . 2010. Dreaming of Islands. In: UNSPECIFIED, ed. Renée Green: Endless Dreams and Time-Based Streams. San Francisco, CA: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Article

The coloniality of planting: legacies of racism and slavery in the practice of botany Gray, Ros ; Sheikh, Shela ORCID logo ; and Gray, Rosalind. 2021. The coloniality of planting: legacies of racism and slavery in the practice of botany. The Architectural Review(1478), ISSN 0003-861X
La terre damnée: conflits botaniques et interventions artistiques Sheikh, Shela ; and Gray, Ros . 2018. La terre damnée: conflits botaniques et interventions artistiques. Le journal des laboratoires (Cahier C), pp. 3-6.
Editor's Introduction: The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions Gray, Ros ; and Sheikh, Shela . 2018. Editor's Introduction: The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions. Third Text, 32(2-3), pp. 163-175. ISSN 0952-8822

Project

Sensing Soil Art Residency at the Art Research Garden Gray, Ros ; Hannam, Jacqueline; and Morrison, Harun. 2021-2022 Sensing Soil Art Residency at the Art Research Garden.
Arts of Planetary Rewilding Gray, Ros . 2021 - ongoing Arts of Planetary Rewilding.
The Coloniality of Planting: Economic Botany and Imperial Logistics Gray, Ros . 2020-ongoing The Coloniality of Planting: Economic Botany and Imperial Logistics.

Audio

The Coloniality of Planting Sheikh, Shela ; and Gray, Ros . 2020. The Coloniality of Planting.

Conference or Workshop Item

The Singing Compost Colin, Anna ; Gray, Ros ; Granjon, Paul; and Morrison, Harun. 2024. 'The Singing Compost'. In: BSSS Annual Conference: 'Sustainable Soils for People and Planet'. Glamorgan Cricket Club, Cardiff, United Kingdom 4-6 December 2024.
Sensing Soil: Exciting/inviting soil curiosity at the Lewisham Way Garden Gray, Ros . 2022. 'Sensing Soil: Exciting/inviting soil curiosity at the Lewisham Way Garden'. In: Alterstories from the Soil: Exploring Ecological Un/Belongings. University of Warwick, United Kingdom 15 June 2022.
The Socialist Friendships of Mozambican Cinema Gray, Ros . 2014. 'The Socialist Friendships of Mozambican Cinema'. In: Red Africa. Calvert 22, United Kingdom.

Edited Journal

The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions Gray, Ros ; and Sheikh, Shela , eds. 2018. The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions, Third Text, 32(2-3). 0952-8822
The Militant Image: A Ciné-Geography Eshun, Kodwo ; and Gray, Ros , eds. 2011. The Militant Image: A Ciné-Geography, Third Text, 25(1). 0952-8822

Thesis

Ambitions of Cinema: Revolution, Event, Screen Gray, Rosalind Laura . 2008. Ambitions of Cinema: Revolution, Event, Screen. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London

Conferences and talks

2023: ALA lecture series: Ros Gray and Boukary Sawadogo

2021: Public Art and Environment, Public Art Now conference, Dublin Technical University

2021: Cinemas of the Mozambican Revolution, CAS seminar series, University of Edinburgh

2020: Cinemas of the Mozambican Revolution, Cinema & Revolution Conference, Escola das Artes, Universidade Catolica, Porto

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