Jessica A. Cooley (she/her/hers) is a scholar-curator with a PhD in art history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her first book project centers on what she calls “crip materiality” and will forward a new methodology to address how ableism affects the understanding and valuation of the very fibers of art materials within curatorial and conservation discourses. Cooley was a guest curator for the Ford Foundation Art Gallery from 2019-2022 where she co-curating a multi-year online and in-person exhibition project titled "INDISPOSABLE.” From 2006–2010, Cooley served as assistant curator at Davidson College’s Van Every/Smith Galleries where she curated numerous exhibitions including two that are considered among the first in the nation to investigate the intersection of disability and art: RE/FORMATIONS: Disability, Women, and Sculpture (2009) and STARING (2009). Currently, Cooley is serving as the ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow for the University of Minnesota’s Liberal Arts Engagement Hub.
