Marie-France Rafael (she/her) (Dr. phil) is Professor of Art in Context at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). She studied art history and film studies in Berlin and Paris. From 2011 to 2015, she was a research associate at the Free University of Berlin, and until 2019 at the Muthesius University Kiel, Department of Spatial Strategies and Curatorial Spaces. In her research, writing, and teaching, Rafael investigates the role of contemporary art in shaping human agency and social practices. Working through a transdisciplinary approach that spans visual studies, film and media theory, and social analysis, she examines how art’s entanglement with cultural practices reflects specific historical conditions. A central focus of her work is the impact of digitalisation on contemporary art, understood not merely as a virtual sphere but as a technological interface that structures embodied experience. Her publications include Raphaela Vogel: Outside Form (Floating Opera Press, 2023), Passing Images: Art in the Post-Digital Age (Floating Opera Press, 2022), and Reisen ins Imaginativ (Walther König, 2017).