Alexis Zoto: Professor at USC Roski School of Art and Design
Introduction
As of March 2024, Alexis Zoto is in her 25th year of teaching at the Roski School of Art and Design at USC. In addition, Zoto works as a practicing artist and scholar. According to her: “My scholarly work feeds my personal artwork, and then my experience as a feminist woman in the United States informs my artwork.” Zoto loves teaching at USC because it is a big research university which allows her students to be very interdisciplinary. In comparison to an art school where everyone’s major and focus is art and other subjects. She feels this gives students the opportunity to fulfill their creativity while also studying something entirely different.
As a practicing artist, Zoto works with materials. She does everything from sculpture to installations and weaving to murals and printmaking. As an artist, Zoto tries to always think about the sustainability of her work. Part of her practice is constantly reusing materials or even her children’s trash. She has turned a bunch of their old clothes into yarn. She is frustrated by the amount of waste and tries to counteract it in her art and classroom.
As a scholar, Zoto studies woven goods from Albania. She is fascinated by the intricacy of the goods created by the weavers, many of which are women. Zoto is proud to shine light on the women weavers whose work is not appreciated due to its domestic nature. From her research in Albania, Zoto has presented her work worldwide, published articles and incorporated their techniques and styles into her personal work.
Career Overview
Since early childhood, Zoto has always been a creative person who yearned to share her passions with others. After growing up in a household where her artistic dreams weren’t always supported, Zoto knew she had to pursue art through teaching to appease her family. Wanting to get a background in art, Zoto attended an art school. However, she transferred to USC after her first year because she missed academic rigor she had during high school. Following her bachelor's degree, Zoto decided to pursue a masters. After working a multitude of jobs during grad school, Zoto was finally able to break into the higher education world. Through her roles as a teaching assistant for a theory class and a teaching fellow in grad school, Zoto truly discovered her love of education. She loved the university setting because of the rich community and stimulating conversation, especially at a top tier research university. Zoto commented on the difficulty of obtaining her role in higher education, “there's just not as many slots available as there are people who are interested in that. And obviously, in the arts in particular, there's not a lot of support in our culture. And so as a result, there's only a few scholarships and opportunities, and so many people are applying for the same thing.” In her current position as a professor at the Roski School of Art and Design, Zoto is surrounded by faculty who are experts in many fields. These peers greatly contribute to the depth of her fascination in the arts. Zoto is also now able to sit on committees that distribute fellowships to students. She mentioned how amazed she is by these students who are able to synthesize sometimes three or four majors and committed to solving wicked problems.
In the classroom, Zoto’s priority is to facilitate her students’ artistic and design process. She notes, “I'm there as a support person to ask the right questions, challenge students to really push themselves and think about things differently. Basically, I make them work really hard.” Even though she loves being involved as a teacher, it can be creatively depleting for her. As a teacher, Zoto immerses herself into her students' work to make them better. She wants to push them to the point where they can surprise themselves on everything they can accomplish. After teaching these students for years, Zoto says it is very gratifying to see them launch into their lives as creative people.
In her scholarly work, Zoto studies woven textiles such as rugs and kilims from Albania. By chance, Zoto came across this topic when looking through her cousin's bookshelf at a family reunion. Among all the books of propaganda and communism in the Balkans, Zoto saw a “gorgeous book that was on rugs and kilims.” She was immediately fascinated by it and started using imagery from the book to inform her personal art. However, she felt a disconnect because she wasn’t able to fully understand the nuances of their work due to a lack of research on the subject. Zoto eventually obtained a grant to study in Albania to research for herself. She was able to interview weavers, visit archives, and immerse herself in their culture. She mentioned how the majority of the weavers are women and the extent to which their work is undervalued because they are women and what they make are domestic objects. Through her work, Zoto aimed to challenge the notion that their work is not art. She notes, “there's no way I could do any of this without community, support and people really wanting to help because they want to preserve cultural heritage ... I've been incredibly grateful to individuals who have made it possible for me to do that kind of work. And then as a result I've done and folded it into my own artwork.” Zoto was commissioned to do a massive mural at LAX where she incorporated her research from Albania. Not only has she used her learning in her art, but she has also lectured about the topic globally, published papers and voiced it in her classroom. She is extremely grateful for the opportunities she’s had because it has allowed her to share her heritage and shed light on the women who weave.
Zoto works in a male dominated field and has felt the effects of it. (And growing up in and living in a systemically racist and patriarchal culture) Seeing and being a recipient of this inequality has led Zoto to fight for her rights and “the rights of all people with uteruses.” She feels that it is an everyday struggle to push back and she just needs to keep persisting. However, she didn’t always view it this way. It only clicked for her in college where she realized there is a lot wrong with the world. From then on, she has felt the need to
always speak out and resist the inequalities. When she sits on committees for opportunities, she is always mindful of the representation and diversity of the recipients. In her personal life, she also emphasizes the need for her children to “think critically of the world and be aware of how systems are set up to put certain people at a disadvantage and elevate others.” She wants them to be able to recognize injustices and fight back. For Zoto, “the personal is political.”
Zoto was the Chair of her department at USC, but it wasn’t the right fitfor her. Although most people strive to hold leadership opportunities, Zoto was never trained as a manger and was negatively affected by many of the things she saw in the workplace. However, she liked having power because she was able to do right by people. What upset her was that many others didn’t do the same. She mentioned how part of her job was to create professors' schedules. Zoto noticed another chair gave the worst schedule to a mom of two young children and she wouldn’t be able to nurse and fulfill her responsibilities as a mom. This infuriated Zoto because she couldn't wrap her head around the idea that he couldn’t just cut her a break. She notes, “I was constantly fighting things like this, where I would see things like that. And I get really angry, and fight about it, and constantly push back and you know, but when you're privy to all that kind of stuff, it's like everywhere, and then people find out like that you're pushing back. And so then they come to you with their problems.” Fighting all the time was exhausting, she started to feel constantly unhappy and unable to fulfill her own personal responsibilities. She ultimately stepped down from the position and is the better for it.
Mentorship
Zoto sees mentorship as a lifelong journey. She thoroughly enjoys mentoring young people, noting “it’s a wonderful thing to be a sought after person where people come to you for advice.” She sees mentoring as a very organic thing that can not be formalized or assigned. The people who want her as mentors are usually related/connected to her expertise or field of study. Zoto also loves co-mentoring because she can discuss how to best challenge and push the student to grow more with someone who understands the situation just as well as she does. At the moment, she and her colleague are having fun mentoring a senior on his thesis.
Zoto attributes her love of mentoring to her own mentors, a majority of whom are women. She believes her grandmother unlocked Zoto’s creative side, from taking her to church where every wall was adorned with art to helping her set the table in different ways. As she got older, Zoto acquired more mentors. In high school, Zoto built a connection with her art teacher. She notes, “that it is really important that you find those teachers where your like ‘these are my people and I want to continue to have that connection with them when you leave.’” Many teachers have their own way of teaching and the diversity of styles contributes to a strong education. In college, Zoto looked up to her professor, Ruth Weisberg. Weisberg was a professor, published scholar, artist and mom. Zoto didn’t even know it was possible to have a thriving career and a personal life. She was the first professor who made Zoto feel seen and supported. She saw something in Zoto that Zoto couldn’t even see in herself. Following college, they became friends and she is now someone Zoto goes to for career advice. She was also the person who encouraged her to go to graduate school. Zoto also finds mentorship in her friendships. As an artist, Zoto is always looking for advice and critiques on her art. She invites many friends to her studio to talk about her work and hopefully push her in ways she didn’t even know existed, like she does for her own students.
Future
Zoto occasionally struggles to balance her personal and work life. However, there is no doubt that motherhood is most important to her as it takes precedence over all her other responsibilities. In the past, she chose not to pursue certain opportunities because she had a family, but will soon be an empty nester. As much as she will miss her children, Zoto is excited to step on the gas for herself and her own work. Despite all the skills she has learned, Zoto believes the most important skills are the ones she has yet to learn. She is always looking to acquire more skills and knowledge. She is interested in the idea of doing a residency in a foreign city to learn about techniques, skills, and a new culture.
