His research involves the intersection between practice and theory in contemporary art, especially the ways in which interpretative dynamics encountered on the micro level of the work of art are mediated by larger issues in the political crucible. Steiner’s recent books include Rodney Graham: The Phonokinetoscope, (London: Afterall Books: One Work Series, 2013) and The New Criticism: Formalist Literary Theory in America, co-edited with Rick Armstrong and Alfred J. Drake (London: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013).