Johanna Drucker

Distinguished Research Professor

Johanna Drucker is the Breslauer Professor of Bibliographical Studies in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA. She is internationally known for her work in artists’ books, the history of graphic design, typography, experimental poetry, fine art, and digital humanities. Recent titles include: Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production (Harvard University Press, 2014), The General Theory of Social Relativity (The Elephants, 2018), Downdrift: An Eco-fiction (Three Rooms Press, 2018), and Visualization: Modelling Interpretation (forthcoming). Off-World Fairy Tales, a collaboration with Susan Bee, was published in Fall 2020 (Litmus Press). In 2014, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and awarded an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts by the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2017. Her recent work includes: Visualisation: L’Interpretation Modellante Visualizing Interpretation (MIT, 2020), Iliazd: Metabiography of a Modernist (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), and Digital Humanities Coursebook (Routledge, 2020). Her work has been translated into Korean, Catalan, Chinese, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Danish and Portuguese.

Departments

Department of Information Studies

Interests

Expertise

Research Centers

Titles and Positions

Distinguished Research Professor of Information Studies, UCLA

Awards, Honors and Fellowships

2019 Alexandra Garrett Award for Service, Beyond Baroque Literary Center, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Inaugural Distinguished Beinecke Fellow in Material Cultures
2016 Honorary Ph.D. in Fine Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, May 2016
2015 Walter Ong Award for Scholarship, Media Ecology Association

2014 Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2014 Oscar Lewis Award, The Book Club of California (for work in book arts)
2010 APHA (American Printing History Association) Individual Achievement Award
2008-09 Stanford Digital Humanities Fellow, Humanities Center
2004 Digital Cultures Fellow, UC Santa Barbara, February
1998 Djerassi Foundation: Artist’s Residency, August 1998
1994 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Award for Junior Faculty Teaching, Columbia University, School of General Studies
1992-3 Getty Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship for Research
1990 Summer, Faculty Research Grant, Columbia University
1988-89 Harvard Mellon Faculty Fellow, Department of Fine Arts
1987 President’s Summer Grant, U.T. Dallas, (research on Iliazd)
1986 Humanities Research Grant, U.C. Berkeley, (six weeks research support for work on critical biography of Iliazd).
1984-85 Fulbright Fellowship for doctoral candidates, Paris, France, dissertation research on experimental typography
1983-84 Regents’ Fellowship, U.C. Berkeley
1981-82 Regents’ Fellowship, U.C. Berkeley
1980-81 Regents’ Fellowship, U.C. Berkeley
1969 National Merit Scholar.

Education

Honorary Doctorate, Maryland Institute College of Art, 2016
Ph.D., Ecriture, University of California, Berkeley, 1986
M.A., Visual Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1982
B.F.A., California College of Arts and Crafts, 1973

Select Publications

Iliazd: Metabiography of a Modernist, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020.
The Digital Humanities Coursebook, Routledge, Spring 2021.
Visualisation: Interpretation Modelisante, B42, Paris, 2020.
Visualization: Modeling Interpretation, MIT, 2020.

Graphesis: The Visual Production of Knowledge in a Digital Era, Harvard University Press, 2014.
SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Speculative Computing, University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide, with Emily McVarish, Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008.
Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity, University of Chicago Press, 2005.
The Century of Artists’ Books, Granary Books, 1995.
The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination, Thames and Hudson, Spring 1995 (Italian translation, 2001, Catalan translation, 2001).