ACASA Leadership Award

The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) confers a Leadership Award upon an individual whose accomplishments best exemplify excellence in the study of African and/or African Diasporic arts and/or whose innovative contributions and vision have advanced the field. The Award is presented every three years at the Triennial Symposium of African Art Awards Ceremony, and consists of an appropriate memento, a citation, and a lifetime membership in ACASA.

Criteria for the Award are the distinction of contribution to the field of African and African Diasporic art, as measured by a lifetime of accomplishments in areas such as teaching, mentoring, research, curating, publishing, artistic expression, administration, and service to the field. In addition, the individual should have demonstrated generosity of spirit and collegiality. Candidates within and outside of the academic and museum communities are considered.

The Leadership Award Committee is composed of the Past President of ACASA, the recipient/s of the previous Leadership Award and four ACASA members (ranging from senior to mid-level and junior) designated by the ACASA Board of Directors. The Committee solicits recommendations through mail or electronic ballot from the ACASA membership and input from prominent scholars in the field. It composes a list of potential recipients and selects one – and in rare instances - two leaders. The recommendation of the Committee is presented for final approval to the President of ACASA and the ACASA Board of Directors.

The names of candidates not selected for the award are kept by the past Chair of the Leadership Awards Committee and circulated to the Chair of the next ACASA Leadership Awards.

2007 ACASA Leadership Award Recipient
Susan Vogel

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Roy Sieber Dissertation Award

The Roy Sieber Dissertation Award is granted to the most outstanding Ph.D. dissertation on some aspect of African and/or African Diaspora art, in any discipline. Dissertations completed in the three years prior to the Triennial are eligible for consideration by the award committee. Advisors may nominate one dissertation only. Dissertations should be submitted in English.

This award honors Roy Sieber, who was awarded the first Ph.D. in African art history in the United States in 1957 at The University of Iowa. He was a professor of art history at Indiana University from 1960 to 2001 and supervised 29 dissertations in the field of African art.

Dissertations (one hardcopy and a zip-diskcopy) should be sent by the author to chair of the Sieber Dissertation Award Committee, along with a letter indicating author’s name, university affiliation, current address, email address, telephone, fax and the name of the nominating PhD advisor. Advisors should ask their students to send their completed dissertations by no later than September 15 in the year prior to the Triennial.

2007 Award Winners

Nakazibwe, Venny M., Bark-Cloth of the Baganda People of Southern Uganda: A Record of Continuity and Change from the Late Eighteenth Century to the Early Twenty-first Century (supervisor: Jackie Guille), Middlesex University, 2005

Okeke-Agulu, Chika, Nigerian Art in the Independence Decade: 1957-1967 (Supervisor: Sidney Kasfir), Emory University, Art History, 2004

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Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award

The Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award honors publications for excellence in scholarship on the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora. The award, offered every three years, is given to works of original scholarship and excellence in visual presentation that make significant contributions to our understanding of African and African Diasporic arts and material culture. This award was first bestowed in 1989 in honor of the late Dr. Arnold Rubin, professor of Art History at UCLA from 1967-1988.

Topics may include visual arts and material culture (including sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, photography, textile arts, etc.), and performing arts (including masquerade, music, dance, etc.) of Africa and the African Diaspora. Symposium proceedings, new editions of previously published works, bibliographies, articles, dissertations, and books of photographs without scholarly texts fall out of the scope of this award.

Awards are given in two categories: (1) Original scholarly works by one or two authors published in English, including books published in conjunction with exhibitions; (2) Original scholarly works by three or more authors published in English, including books published in conjunction with exhibitions.

Publishers who wish to nominate a title or titles should send one copy to each of the committee members. It must be received by September 15 of the year prior to the Triennial.

2007 Award Winners

Harney, Elizabeth, In Senghor’s Shadow, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004 (One to Two Authors).

Nuttall, Sarah, ed. Beautiful-Ugly: African and African Diaspora Aesthetics, Durham, NC: Duke University Press and The Hague: Prince Claus Fund Library, 2005 (Multiple Authors).

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