Del Holton is a PhD candidate in Art History and Film & Media Studies at Stanford University with specialization in global contemporary art and lens-based media. They are currently a 2025-26 Chester Dale Fellow in the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and have been awarded a 2026-27 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art.
Their dissertation theorizes a Black and Red hauntology of the US South, specifically the Mississippi Delta, through contemporary art and media. Other research areas include video art and experimental moving image practices, East and Southeast Asian cinemas, and critical archive and memory studies. Their writing appears or is forthcoming in Film Quarterly, Journal of Asian American Studies, Frontiers, The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Brooklyn Rail, Flash Art, Screen Slate, Elephant, X-TRA, and others. They have contributed to exhibitions and public programs with MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Center for Asian American Media, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Kearny Street Workshop, the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, the Museum of Chinese in America, and the Blanton Museum of Art, among others.
Alongside their research, Del served as the Graduate Student-in-Residence for Undergraduate Research Support at the Stanford Asian American Activities Center from 2021-2025, where they mentored over 70 undergraduate students. In 2024, they were the instructor of record for undergraduate course Theories of the Moving Image. Their teaching and mentorship have been recognized through three campus-wide teaching distinctions including the Community Impact Award (2025), Graduate Leadership Award (2025), and Centennial Teaching Assistant Award (2023).