Cultural labor, cultural policy, political economy of art, autonomy of art, Yugoslav socialism, socialist political economy, marxists feminism, invisible labor, social reproduction

• AAP 501: Why Manage the Arts?
• AAP 507: Special Topics - Arts, Economy, and Labor
• AAP 508: Arts & Cultural Policy and Diplomacy
• AAP 509: Research in Arts Management
• AAP 512/513: Final Project/Thesis Guidance
  

Katja Praznik is a sociologist and the author of Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021) and The Paradox of Unpaid Artistic Labor: Autonomy of Art, the Avant-Garde and Cultural Policy in the Transition to Post-Socialism (Ljubljana: Sophia, 2016) published in Slovenian. Employing a Marxist-feminist critique of unpaid reproductive labor, her scholarly, teaching and organizing work is dedicated to demystification of creativity as a form of labor, including labor organizing strategies and advocacy for labor standards and payment for work in the field cultural production. Her research work is also focused on Yugoslav socialism, neoliberal destruction of welfare state regimes, on exploitation of invisible labor and crisis of social reproduction. Praznik’s writing is published in peer-reviewed journals, including Social Text, Historical Materialism, and KPY Cultural Policy Yearbook as well as  edited volumes, such as Reshape: A Workbook to Reimagine the Art World, edited by Dirk de Witt  (Flanders Art Institute, 2021), The Routledge Companion to Marxisms in Art History, edited by Tijen Tunali and Brian Winkenweder (Routledge, 2024) and numerous international journals and publications, for example IETM’s innovate cultural policy publication Which side are you on? Ideas for Reaching Fair Working Conditions in the Art (IETM, 2022). Praznik holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Before her employment in the US academia, she worked in the independent art scene in Slovenia a self-employed cultural worker. She was the editor-in-chief of Maska – preforming arts journal and actively engaged in the struggles for improving working conditions of art workers at Društvo Asociacija. In 2022, together with local artists an activist Praznik spearheaded and cofounded Slovenian union for freelance and self-employed art workers Zasuk.