Editor’s Note: This month, IPS is pleased to welcome Elena V. Grant as our final speaker of the 2015-16 season. Please see her bio below. We have had some terrific speakers this year, including highly respected veteran editorial photography editor Lauren Stockbower and how can we forget the exuberant and wonderful Washington Post photographer Marvin Joseph? Much appreciation to our Program Directors Dorte Verner, Susanne Tischendorf and Xixoxiao Peng (and Michele and Manuel) for their efforts.
Elena 
V. Grant obtained her Masters in the History of Decorative Arts from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in 2011 graduating with the Thesis Achievement Award. She has worked as a Research Associate at the Asian Cultural History Program at the Smithsonian Institution and as an Art History Researcher at the World Bank Art Program.
Co-organizer of international exhibitions at the Art Program in the USA, Bangladesh and India, she has been working with emerging artists from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and South Asia. She has helped identify photographers for an ongoing series of solo shows Through the Eyes of a Woman; a group exhibition South Asia: Imagining Our Future Together and a traveling multi-dimensional art project on gender-based violence One in Three: What Does It Take for You to Be Outraged.
Her current projects include preparatory work for exhibitions: Nepali Post-Earthquake Art: New Narratives, and New Art from the Republics of Central Asia: 25 Years of Independence.
