Anna Arabindan-Kesson is a writer, art historian and curator whose writing and scholarship reflect her global and interdisciplinary experiences working across medicine and the arts.

Born in Sri Lanka, Anna grew up in Djilang/Geelong, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, and Boorloo/Perth. Prior to her academic career, she practiced as a Registered Nurse for several years primarily in Western Australia and the UK. Following her career in nursing, Anna graduated from the University of Western Australia with a BA (Hons, first class) before completing a PhD in African American Studies and Art History at Yale University where her dissertation was awarded the Sylvia Ardyn Boone Prize.

Anna holds the position of Associate professor of Black Diaspora art at Princeton University. Her award-winning book Black Bodies White Gold: Art, Cotton and Commerce in the Atlantic World (Duke University Press, 2021) focused on the relationship of slavery, cotton and commerce in African American, Caribbean, and British Art. Her second book An Empire State of Mind examines visual histories of agriculture, economic botany and medicine in Australia, South Asia, the USA and the Caribbean. She teaches courses about African American, Caribbean, British, Australian and South Asian art, alongside histories of medicine, migration, and museums. She continues to curate exhibitions, works closely with contemporary artists and collaborates with art institutions internationally. In 2022 she held the Terra Foundation Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, between 2022-2025 she was the inaugural Art Gallery of Western Australia Senior Research Fellow. She was a visiting fellow at the Kunsthistoriches Institute, Florence in 2026. Anna directs the international research platform Art Hx that centers art in exploring experiences of health. She is a Trustee of the American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia, and works closely with the American Australian Association in supporting the AusArts Fellowship.