Nikolas Orr

Background

About Nikolas Orr

Nikolas is an historian and PhD (History) graduate of the Centre for the Study of Violence, University of Newcastle, Australia. He has held various teaching and research roles in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science and Newcastle Law School at the University of Newcastle and in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales. Nikolas graduated from a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture) with first-class honours at University of Sydney in 2005 before pursuing an 11-year career as an educational materials editor in Spain. In 2013 he completed a Masters in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture with distinction at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid before transitioning to the Australian GLAM and Higher Education sectors. His most recent research focuses on the role and critical reception of monuments within European imperial projects, notably the British and Spanish empires. Iconoclasm, as in the destruction, modification and resignification of symbols, is the central theme of much of Nikolas' work. His dissertation is centred on the place of iconoclasm in anti-colonial resistance from the 1970s to the present, a timeframe which highlights Indigenous actors and transnational activism. Future projects will pursue a long view of anti-colonial iconoclasm, plying early modern sources for evidence of challenges to colonial visual regimes.