Gloria Bell’s research and teaching examines visual culture focusing on Indigenous arts of the Americas, primarily from the nineteenth century through to contemporary manifestations. Currently, her research focuses on exhibition histories of First Nations, Métis and Inuit arts in the early twentieth century in Italy, Global Indigenous studies, decolonizing and anti-colonial methodologies, materiality studies, global histories of body art, and the importance of art as living history.
Professor Bell has presented at conferences in the fields of art history and Indigenous studies across Turtle Island. She worked as the web editor for the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective and also as a curator and in collections management at the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe. Bell has Métis and Celtic ancestry. She has published in the anthology Métis in Canada, journals such as Wicazo Sa Review and Journal of Global Catholicismcontributes regularly to art publications including Canadian Art and First American Art Magazine.