Octavian Esanu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine Arts and Art History and curator of the American University of Beirut (AUB) Art Galleries. He has degrees in fine arts, interior architecture, critical theory, and a Ph.D. in art history from Duke University (2009). He is the author of What Does “Why” Mean? (Solitude and J&L Books); Transition in Post-Soviet Art (CEU Press); has edited such volumes as: Art, Awakening and Modernity in the Middle East (Routledge, 2018); and Contemporary Art and Capitalist Modernization (Routledge, 2020). His most recent curatorial projects include: “The Arab Nude” (2016) [with Kirsten Scheid]; “One Hundred Years Closer to Communism” (2017); “Adachi Masao—A Militant Theory of Landscape” (2019). He is part of the editorial collective ARTMargins.