Pau Nava

Pau Nava (they/them) is a cultural historian, gender theorist and PhD Candidate in American Culture at the University of Michigan. Their dissertation, “The Artist as Archivist: A Chicago Case Study,” focuses on the role of art as an interactive public memory practice guided by tangible and affective exploration of archival records. They are a collective member of the Chicana por mi raza digital memory project and alumni of the Smithsonian’s Latino Museum Studies Program. Pau is also a zine artist and spoken word poet who runs Venadito Press, a DIY publishing project centering BIPOC, queer and trans voices in the midwest since 2016.

As the IRWG Feminist Art Collections Fellow, Pau will lead efforts to catalog and update the permanent art and archival materials on display in the public spaces of Lane Hall during the 2024-25 academic year.