John Cussans is an artist, arts educator and writer working across the fields of contemporary art, cultural history and critical art theory. His academic work explores the legacies of colonialism, psychoanalysis and surrealism in art, cinema and popular culture from ethnographic, psychological and science fictional perspectives. He has written and taught on Western constructions of the alien, inhuman and primitive and their subversions in art, anti-psychiatry and philosophy with a specific focus on the cultures of British Columbia, Haiti and Great Britain. He is a member of SMRU (Social Morphologies Research Unit) a collaboration between artists and anthropologists based at University College London and DRG (Diagram Research Group) with David Burrows, Dean Kenning and Mary Yacoob.

He has an informal, collaborative and participatory arts practice, rooted in his training as a signwriter, illustrator and graphic designer, that combines video, performance and public pedagogy. He has exhibited work at many international galleries and events including Barbara Thumm (Berlin), Broel Museum (Belgium), Cabinet (London), , Focal Point Gallery (Southend), Gallery Afa (Santiago), ICA (London), Ghetto Biennale (Post-au-Prince), IMT (London), Künstbunker (Nuremberg), Lobe Gallery (Berlin), Peloton Gallery (Sydney), Sketch (London), South London Gallery, the V&A (London) and most recently at documenta fifteen (Kassel) and RISING festival (Melbourne).

His book Undead Uprising: Haiti, Horror and the Zombie Complex (MIT/Strange Attractor 2017) explores the uses of Haiti as a locus for Euro-American fears about African culture, spirituality and revolutionary excess in the Americas and their sublimation into popular horror tropes. It has been described by LeGrace Benson, President of the Haitian Studies Association, as a must read for anyone wishing to understand more about the destinies of African-based religions in the Americas.

In 2001 he co-founded The Bughouse, an international artistic research project celebrating the work of Philip K. Dick that culminated in two collective multi-media art events: Project VALIS (2002) and The Ideoplasmic Congress (2003). Since 2009 he has been closely involved with the Ghetto Biennale, an international art event that takes place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is currently working on a long-term artistic research project called The Skullcracker Suite, investigating cultural decolonization in British Columbia, Canada.

He has a PhD in Cultural History from the Royal College of Art, an MA in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex and a BA in Graphic Design and Illustration from Northumbria University. He has taught and lectured in contextual studies, art history and fine art studio practice at many prestigious, national and international educational institutions including: Bergen Academy of Art and Design (Norway), Duke University (Durham), Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver), Goldsmiths College (London), Central Saint Martins (London), Ruskin School of Art (Oxford), Slade School of Art (London), the Royal Academy (London) and the Royal College of Art (London).

Between 2014 and 2018 he was the DPhil Seminar convener and MFA course leader at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. He is currently a senior lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Worcester where he leads the BA Fine Art, BA Fine Art with Psychology and the Arts and Health Research Group.