Nicole Liao

Nicole Liao is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Toronto. Her interests lie at the intersection of the history of photography and film, science and technology studies, and aesthetics. Nicole’s dissertation will foreground the importance of color in theories of evolution and biology as scientist sought to reveal, magnify and animate life processes in the latter half of the 19th century. Specifically, she will be focusing on experimental imaging and staining technologies between 1870 and 1930 when France became a center for biomedical research and Germany the center for the chemical dye industry. Her research has been supported by the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at University of Toronto and the Huntington Library and Museum.