Campus Directory

Pronouns She/Her

Division Arts Division

Department/College/Unit Art Department

Title Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies Environmental Art + Social Practice MFA Program
Art + Science Faculty Director, Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History
Founding Director Unseen California

Affiliation Faculty

Other UCSC Campus Affiliation Kenneth S Norris Center for Natural History
Environmental Studies Department
Film and Digital Media Department

Faculty Type Regular Faculty

Areas of Expertise Art Photography/Photography as Critical Practice
Globalization
Social Documentation
Visual Arts

Web Site

Primary Office Location Digital Arts Research Center
DARC # 239

Office Hours for Students/ Office Hours by appointment

Mail Stop Art Department

Research Interests

Through a range of photographic media Karlic creates work that addresses the intersection of photography and documentary practices, with a focus on systems of labor and industry, globalization, and their impact on the social and environmental landscapes. Karlic has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, residencies, and awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. 

Her research is dedicated to telling the stories of those persons and ecologies who have been affected by the post-modernization of the industrial world. In her research, Rubberlands, a photographic survey that maps the ways natural rubber manufacturing is socially, ecologically and systemically formed, Karlic proposes that rubber + photography are both integral components of the second phase of the industrial revolution. This research proposes that each are equal players in the development of a globalized contemporary mobile society of making and consuming. 

Karlic is the founding director of Unseen California, the Director of Graduate Studies Environmental Art + Social Practice MFA Program and the Faculty Director of Art + Science initiatives at the Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History at UCSC.