ACASA — Arts Council of the African Studies Association

Assistant Professor-Animation/Interactive Design or Graphic Design

February 28, 2023 By Kehinde Shobukonla

East Carolina University

Assistant Professor-Animation/Interactive Design or Graphic Design

Vacancy #: 940735
Recruitment Range: Commensurate with Qualifications
Closing Date: Open Until Filled

Organizational Unit Overview

The School of Art and Design provides a multidisciplinary approach to art and design that creates opportunities for students to develop creative and critical thinking abilities by thinking through making. The School enrols more than 550 students in twelve areas across four degrees. The School of Art and Design is the largest BFA Art program in the University of North Carolina system and has been continuously accredited by NASAD since 1962. The School has 40 full-time faculty and is located in the Jenkins Fine Arts Center, a 142,000-square foot facility with specialized equipment, tools, and technology for the School’s disciplines—animation/interactive design, art education, art history, film and video production, ceramics, glass, graphic design, illustration, metal design, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textile design. From computer labs, a digital loom, CNC routers, and laser cutters to a wood shop, foundry, letterpress shop, black and white dark room and beyond, the School’s facilities are comprehensive and available to faculty and students to think, make, and work across the School’s disciplines.

The School takes responsibility for actions and the future we build, and acknowledges the diversity of our community as we work toward a thriving, supportive community that values, acknowledges, and respects our differences and creates opportunities for everyone. To achieve the mission of social justice, we commit to holding ourselves and our leadership accountable for creating an inclusive, diverse community that provides opportunities for underrepresented community members; presenting artists from underrepresented communities in our teaching practice, providing context for the traditional/historical canon, and teaching the work of contemporary artists working in and outside the museum/gallery model, educating ourselves on race and social justice issues to decolonize classroom environments and actively foster compassion, understanding, and appreciation for each other’s differences; increasing the number of invited guest lecturers and exhibitions from more diverse communities; supporting the community (students, faculty, staff, guests), particularly regarding race, socio-economic class, and intergenerational poverty; recruiting students and hiring faculty from more diverse backgrounds to amplify underrepresented voices, working collaboratively toward shared goals of inclusivity and justice; identifying, locating, critiquing, and challenging factors that have contributed to and perpetuated a disconnect between the predominately white leadership (administration, faculty, and staff) and the more diverse community we serve; and developing a culture in which identifying mistakes is encouraged and welcomed, as well as taking responsibility for mistakes and committing to respectful action in the future.

Job Duties

The School of Art and Design at East Carolina University seeks nine-month, tenure-track Assistant Professor in the area of Animation/Interactive Design or Graphic Design. The position is defined broadly within the animation/interactive design or graphic design area and will also teach first year and shared experience courses. This position will teach 3 three-credit courses per semester. This position will continue their art and/or design research, creative activity and/or scholarship; mentor students; engage with other faculty regularly; participate in departmental activities, such as recruiting; engage in opportunities for curricular and course development that reflect their expertise and professional experience; and participate in service to the School, College, University and community; and other activities as appropriate.

The animation/interactive design program, a concentration within the BFA Art, prepares students for a variety of professional outcomes ranging from interactive design, animation, to character and game design. The graphic design program, another concentration within the BFA Art, prepares students for a variety of professional outcomes ranging from print/publication design, branding, to motion and UI/UX.

Contingent upon available funding.

Minimum Education/Experience

Minimum Qualification (candidates must have):

Terminal degree (MFA or equivalent) in animation, game design, interactive design, or related field (for animation/interactive design) or graphic design or related field (for graphic design)
Evidence of potential for creative activity and/or research in their area of expertise

Preferred Experience, Skills, Training/Education

Preferred candidates may have one or more of the following:
Evidence of teaching as instructor of record in higher education
Evidence of creative activity and/or research
Interest in interdisciplinary learning, making, and/or scholarship
Interest in multi-cultural and/or cross-disciplinary visual culture

Special Instructions to Applicant

To apply, candidates must submit the following materials:

Cover letter addressing position description
Curriculum Vitae
A statement describing how the applicant would contribute to the development of a diverse and inclusive learning community at ECU through their teaching, scholarship, and/or service.
Teaching Philosophy
List of at least three professional references including affiliation, email address, and phone number (letters of recommendation will be required at a later date)
A link to your personal website that includes: 20 images of personal work and 20 images of student work (if available)

Please be aware that if selected as a candidate of choice, an automatic e-mail will be sent to the individuals entered by the applicant in the References section the PeopleAdmin applicant tracking system. Letters of reference submitted via the PeopleAdmin applicant tracking system will be verified and considered towards meeting this requirement.

Additional Instructions to Applicant

In order to be considered for this position, applicants must complete a candidate profile online via the PeopleAdmin system and submit any requested documents. Additionally, applicants that possess the preferred education and experience must also possess the minimum education/experience, if applicable.

Applications will be considered until position is filled. Please submit an online ECU application for vacancy #940735 to ECU Human Resources at http://jobs.ecu.edu.

Eligibility for Employment

Final candidates are subject to criminal & sex offender background checks. Some vacancies also require credit or motor vehicle checks. ECU participates in E-Verify. Federal law requires all employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States.

East Carolina University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

Visit this job posting at https://ecu.peopleadmin.com/postings/57186

Endowed Assistant or Associate Professor of African American and/or African Diasporic Art

December 11, 2022 By Kehinde Shobukonla

Locations: Fayetteville

Time type: Full time

Current University of Arkansas System employees including student employees and graduate assistants need to log into Workday on My Apps. Simply enter “Find Jobs” in the Workday search bar to view open positions.

All Job Postings will close at 12:01 a.m. CT on the specified Closing Date (if designated). To view the job posting closing date please return to the search for jobs page.

If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application process will be saved as a draft. You will be able to access and complete the application through “My Draft Applications” located on your Candidate Home page.

Type of Position: Faculty – Tenure/Tenure Track

Workstudy Position: No

Job Type: Regular

Work Shift: Day Shift (United States of America)

Sponsorship Available: Yes

Institution Name: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas is a land grant institution, classified by the Carnegie Foundation among the nation’s top 2 percent of universities with the highest level of research activity. The University of Arkansas works to advance Arkansas and build a better world through education, research and outreach by providing transformational opportunities and skills, promoting an inclusive and diverse culture and climate, and nurturing creativity, discovery and the spread of new ideas and innovations.

The University of Arkansas campus is located in Fayetteville, a welcoming community ranked as one of the best places to live in the U.S. The growing region surrounding Fayetteville is home to numerous Fortune 500 companies and one of the nation’s strongest economies. Northwest Arkansas is also quickly gaining a national reputation for its focus on the arts and overall quality of life.

As an employer, the University of Arkansas offers a vibrant work environment and a workplace culture that promotes a healthy work-life balance. The benefits package includes university contributions to health, dental, life and disability insurance, tuition waivers for employees and their families, 12 official holidays, immediate leave accrual, and a choice of retirement programs with university contributions ranging from 5 to 10% of employee salary.

Below you will find the details for the position including any supplementary documentation and questions, you should review before applying for the opening.

If you have a disability and need assistance with the hiring process, please submit a request via the Disability Accommodations | OEOC | University of Arkansas (uark.edu) : Request an Accommodation. Applicants are required to submit a request for each position of which they have applied.

For general application assistance or if you have questions about a job posting, please contact Human Resources at 479.575.5351.

Department: School of Art Art History

Department’s Website: https://fulbright.uark.edu/departments/art/

Summary of Job Duties:

The Art History Program in the School of Art, in Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, invites applications for a tenure-track Endowed Assistant or Associate Professor in Art History, focusing on African American and/or African Diasporic arts. Interdisciplinary, intersectional, transnational, transregional, decolonial, community-based, and social justice approaches centering on overlooked or marginalized histories, such as Afro-Latinx traditions, are particularly welcome. The position is open in terms of chronological focus. This is a nine-month faculty appointment, with a standard workload of 40% research, 40% teaching (2 courses per semester), and 20% service. Expected start date is August 14, 2023.

Scholars with a passion for collaboration, program-building, and partnership-development are also encouraged to apply. Applications are also encouraged from those invested in making art history accessible and compelling to first-generation students and students from communities underrepresented in U.S. arts institutions. The Art History Program in the School of Art is actively committed to diversifying art historical knowledge and approaches, embracing new methodologies, and educating students in a multivocal and inclusive art history. This effort is reinforced by several new initiatives within the School of Art, including the Bridge Program, which provides structural support to all new faculty, especially those historically underrepresented in academia and their chosen fields, and a new student mentoring program.

We are a vibrant and growing program. This position is considered fundamental to the implementation of our new MA program in the arts of the Americas, developed in partnership with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and its contemporary arts satellite, the Momentary. For this and future hires, we seek creative thinkers who will contribute to the diversity and excellence of the intellectual community in the School of Art, Crystal Bridges, and the growing arts ecosystem of Northwest Arkansas. Endowed positions come with a significant annual research budget of up to $60,000 to support scholarship, the expectation of a research record appropriate to the prominence of the appointment, and the requirement of at least one community outreach effort per year.

The successful candidate will teach courses at the masters and undergraduate level, play an active role in implementing the new MA program in arts of the Americas (expected launch date of Fall 2023), participate in and help to guide future faculty and student recruitment, and regularly collaborate with staff at Crystal Bridges and the Momentary. Candidates may also teach in the Honors College and at the university’s Rome Center, and co-design courses with colleagues in Studio and other units. Art history faculty have ties to African and African American Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Indigenous Studies Program, among other departments and initiatives. Additional resources include the University of Arkansas Museum, the Fine Arts Center Gallery, the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville, and the many museums in the region, including the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, OK, the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, OK, the Dallas Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, MO.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

Ph.D. in art history or a related field like African American studies, African diaspora studies, visual culture studies, or performance studies, conferred by the date of appointment
An established record of innovative scholarship
A commitment to diversity in teaching and research

Preferred Qualifications:

Interest or experience in interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and cross-campus collaborations
Active or emerging commitment to service and leadership
Demonstrated commitment to program building and partnership development
Demonstrated commitment to community outreach

Additional Information:

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

Completed applications received by 01/13/2023 will be assured full consideration. Late applications will be reviewed as necessary to fill the position.

For additional inquiries, please contact search committee co-chairs Dr. Janine Sytsma at sytsma@uark.edu and Dr. Ana Pulido Rull at apulidor@uark.edu.

Required Documents:

a cover letter addressing research and teaching
a statement describing commitment to diversity and inclusion in research and teaching
curriculum vitae
two scholarly writing samples (preferably published or forthcoming research, submitted in a single PDF)
the names and contact information of three referees

Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

About the School of Art:

In 2017, the University of Arkansas was awarded a $120 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation to establish a School of Art in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. The gift created the first and only school of art in the state of Arkansas, and is helping to advance art education, design, art history and studio art in the state while providing unparalleled access and opportunity to students. In addition, in 2017, the School of Art also received a $40 million gift from the Windgate Foundation to develop and build a new Studio Art and Graphic Design facility. Most recently, in 2021, the Windgate Foundation gave a $30 million partial challenge grant to develop and build a facility to house a professional gallery, auditorium, the foundations program, as well as idea fabrication and arts entrepreneurship labs. The mission of the School of Art is to develop one of the highest quality educational, research and service programs in the visual arts available nationally. The School of Art is a fully accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and includes 54 faculty, 8 staff members, and more than 500 students. There are currently 8 degree options: BFA in Art Education, BFA in Graphic Design, BFA in Studio Art, BA in Art History, BA in Studio Art, MA in Art Education, MFA in Studio Art, and MDES in Communication Design. An MA degree in Art History will launch in fall 2023.

The School of Art at the University of Arkansas highly values equity, access, diversity, and inclusion in creating, studying, and teaching. This position is part of a cluster of searches designed to foster an equitable, innovative, and inclusive environment for teaching, mentoring, research, and service. The School of Art is especially interested in applicants whose work aims to broaden the canon, demonstrates a commitment to mentoring students from diverse backgrounds, creates the conditions for classroom experiences that are marked by empathy and mutual respect, and fosters collaboration, community, and open dialogue. We seek faculty committed to working and creating in ways that foster encouraging and supportive learning experiences that expand the School of Art’s current efforts to engage the campus and community in dialogue.

Salary Information: Salary is $70,000 at Assistant level, and $85,000 at Associate level

Required Documents to Apply:

Cover Letter/Letter of Application, Curriculum Vitae, Diversity Statement, List of three Professional References (name, email, business title), Writing Sample

Optional Documents: Proof of Veteran Status

Recruitment Contact Information: Dr. Janine Sytsma, search committee chair, sytsma@uark.edu

All application materials must be uploaded to the University of Arkansas System Career Site https://uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/UASYS

Please do not send to listed recruitment contact.

Special Instructions to Applicants:

Pre-employment Screening Requirements:

Criminal Background Check, Sex Offender RegistryThe University of Arkansas is committed to providing a safe campus community. We conduct background checks for applicants being considered for employment. Background checks include a criminal background check and a sex offender registry check. For certain positions, there may also be a financial (credit) background check, a Motor Vehicle Registry (MVR) check, and/or drug screening. Required checks are identified in the position listing. A criminal conviction or arrest pending adjudication or adverse financial history information alone shall not disqualify an applicant in the absence of a relationship to the requirements of the position. Background check information will be used in a confidential, non-discriminatory manner consistent with state and federal law.

The University of Arkansas seeks to attract, develop and retain high quality faculty, staff and administrators that consistently display practices and behaviors to advance a culture and climate that embeds inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The University of Arkansas is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. The university welcomes applications without regard to race/color, sex, gender, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, religion, marital or parental status, protected veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal or state law.

Persons must have proof of legal authority to work in the United States on the first day of employment. All applicant information is subject to public disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

Constant Physical Activity: N/A
Frequent Physical Activity: N/A
Occasional Physical Activity: N/A
Benefits Eligible: Yes

Call for Proposals: Archival Absences: An Incomplete History of Photography

September 6, 2022 By Kehinde Shobukonla

Call for Proposals

Archival Absences: An Incomplete History of Photography

A photo-historical seminar for doctoral and post-doctoral scholars, organized and led by Tatjana Bartsch (Bibliotheca Hertziana), Elizabeth Otto (University at Buffalo), Johannes Röll (Bibliotheca Hertziana), and Steffen Siegel (Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen)

Supported by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung, Essen Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History March 20–24, 2023

Deadline: October 20, 2022

Photo-historical research engages a vast array of materials. Scholars working in this field grapple with photographic images of all kinds—from Nicéphore Niépce’s heliographs to the most recent digital imagery. They are attentive to technologies of photographic production and reproduction as well as to the discourses and practices that frame the images. In manifold ways, photo historians can feel lured by the richness of relevant production and tradition. In other words, photography as a medium is not only easily accessed by countless users for many purposes; from a scholarly point of view, it is also a medium that encompasses a mass of researchable resources, a sheer abundance of personal collections and institutional holdings so vast it might even threaten to overwhelm the scholar.

Despite the massive accumulations of diverse material that potentially fall within the purview of histories of photography, such histories can never be considered “completed.” Instead, they are always partial, shaped by researchers’ interests and questions, conscious and unconscious decisions they make and the materials they are able to access. Like the production of photographs themselves, scholars’ work is framed by what Laura Wexler has called a “set of choices” akin to the crops and omissions that delineate the limits of photography’s purported offer of a window into the past. Paradoxically, the most comprehensive photographic collections and archives most clearly reveal not just the excellence of their own holdings, but also the lapses, gaps, exclusions, and oversights within those holdings. Our written approaches to the histories of photography replicate these relationships between what is present and absent, visible and invisible, available and inaccessible, preserved and lost.

These observations are our point of departure for the research seminar titled “Archival Absences: An Incomplete History of Photography.” Following on the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen’s initiative for interdisciplinary seminars on the theory and history of photography—founded with the first seminar in 2019 and, beginning this year, supported by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung—we are pleased to announce the second such program that invites advanced Ph.D. students and recent post-doctoral scholars to present and discuss their research. With the seminar, we aim to2 develop a focused, multi-disciplinary analysis of the material, institutional, and even personal conditions that shape photo-historical practices of researching, writing, and publishing.

We seek to explore diverse means of knowledge production and methods for probing, mitigating, or bridging archival absences of many kinds. For as much as it is true that photo-historical research can claim an overwhelming opulence of sources, the opposite is always also true: in some cases, the archives’ silences are deafening. We want to delve into the significance of what we do not see, read, and experience, what we do not address, question, and investigate—and the reasons for these absences. We want to query the forces that control the possibility of becoming, being, and remaining present—and, as a corresponding other half of a pendant pair—the power of absence.

Over the past decades, research, especially from feminist and post-colonial perspectives, has offered substantial questions, arguments, and methods for identifying and confronting absences. This research shows the importance of addressing two interrelated lines of questioning: what is missing from the archives, and what is missing in our critical discourses? Drawing on both aspects, we invite applications from emerging scholars who will present new scholarship and, in the context of a week-long seminar, discuss a set of questions that relate to materials and institutions, methods and research fields, canons and historiographies. Among the relevant questions that applicants may wish to consider and that will shape the seminar are:

— What views have photographers captured? What have they missed, and why?

— What logics determine the creation and evolution of archives, analog and digital? How are archives shaped by the epistemic moments of their making, and how do they serve certain histories while betraying others? To what extent do photographers, archivists, or curators rely upon trends, past and present, to shape their photographic inquiries?

— What impacts do disciplinary frames have when it comes to archival care for photo-historical materials and also to scholarly interest? Should we valorize the diverse institutional cultures of presence and absence that prevail in various archives, libraries, and museums?

— How and why do archives select particular materials to collect and thus foster their privileged roles in creating visual histories? How and why do institutions exclude, neglect, or deaccession other materials? What is the impact of objects’ existence in analog or digital formats upon their perceived relevance for scholarly scrutiny?

— Which methods do we pursue when we search the content of an archive? How can we detect, distinguish, and address different types of absences, archival holdings as well as strands of research interests? How do we address the myriad negative spaces that constitute an archive as much as its accessible contents do?

— How do we address the photographic objects, traditions, and indeed entire histories that have been forgotten, damaged, destroyed, suppressed, censored, excluded, vanished, disappeared, or simply lost?

— How do we treat visual objects that, for religious, cultural, or personal reasons, were never intended to be collected or viewed publicly?

— How do we mark the incompleteness of our historiographic work? What theoretical ideas, such as “critical fabulation,” enable us to redress these absences? Can research on archival absences constitute another kind of presence?

— Can photo-historical research practices that address questions of being present or absent serve as role models for other disciplines? Relatedly, how can photo scholars learn from other disciplines grappling with a comparable set of problems?

We welcome proposals from Ph.D. students already in the dissertation phase and recent post-doctoral scholars (maximum of three years since degree) in art history and related disciplines with a strong photo-historical component. The seminar language will be English. All participants will present some aspect of their current research projects, which must relate to the program’s subject matter. Visits to several photographic archives in Rome will be an integral part of the seminar.

The Bibliotheca Hertziana will provide lodging in double rooms and reimburse the incurred expenses for traveling economy class up to 500 euros. In addition, participants will receive a modest daily allowance.

Please upload the following application materials as PDF-documents by October 20, 2022, on https://recruitment.biblhertz.it/position/11042816

— Title and 500-word abstract of the proposed topic (all participants will give a 30-minute formal presentation)

— Brief CV (Maximum 3 pages)

— Brief summary of your dissertation or postdoctoral project

— Names and contact details of two references

Questions and queries may be sent to: fototeca@biblhertz.it

The first seminar was followed by the publication of “Circulating Photographs,” a special issue of History of Photography, vol. 45, issue 1, 2021, co-edited by Antonella Pelizzari and Steffen Siegel: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/thph20/45/1?nav=tocList.

The organizers anticipate selecting a limited number of the 2023 seminar’s final papers for publication in a similar volume.

Job Opportunity: Contract Project Manager/Arts Administrator

July 26, 2022 By Kehinde Shobukonla

Applications due 1 September 2022

The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) seeks to hire a Contract Project Manager/Arts Administrator to support the professional activities of the ACASA Board. Learn more about the association on our website.

Tasks: Tasks include general board organization, operations development, and project management. The Project Manager/Arts Administrator will develop a centralized archive and archival organizational system, identify and implement a project management system, identify grant funding opportunities, and provide administrative support for event and outreach planning, including the Triennial Symposium of African Arts in Chicago, IL in Summer 2024.

Contract Term/Format: This is an annual contract position, lasting from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023, with two years of options to renew. The work will be, in large part, conducted remotely. The successful applicant must be available for regular online meetings with the ACASA Board and vendors. Meetings will take place at least once monthly in year one, and every two weeks (or more frequently) in the event year (Year Two). In Year Two, the successful applicant will be expected to travel to Chicago, IL for the Triennial symposium in Summer 2024. Economy class travel, standard conference lodgings, and per diem are included for conference purposes. The Points of Contact will be the ACASA President and Treasurer.

Contract value: Contract payments will be staggered, with once monthly payments at the conclusion of each month, upon submission of an invoice, totaling annually:

Year One: $71,370
Year Two: $74,940
Year Three: $78,690
Year Two travel and per diem: $10,000

Skills/Requirements: The successful applicant must have regular access to internet and cell phone service to complete this primarily remote position and must be fluent in English. They should be legally able to work and travel in the US. A familiarity with African arts is not required but is encouraged. Professional experience with and enthusiasm for project management and non-profit management is required. Applicants should have proficiency with the following:

Zoom (and/or other virtual meeting software)
WhatsApp
Google Drive Suite/Microsoft Office Suite/Dropbox
Web-based project management software (such as Trello, Basecamp, or Gitlab)
Creation and tracking of budgets

This contract position is intended for a recent graduate (up to 5 years) with a terminal degree (PhD, MBA, MFA, MLIS, or similar) and an interest in an arts administration career.

At all times during the performance of this contract, the contractor must obtain and provide evidence of own health insurance, accident insurance with a liability of up to 1 million dollars and worker’s compensation insurance in accordance with statutory requirements and limits.

EEO/AA Statement: ACASA is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer that is committed to cultural and intellectual diversity. The ACASA Board encourages applications from women, persons of color, and persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities have the right to request and receive reasonable accommodation.

Application Deadline: 1 September 2022

Start Date: 1 October 2022

Application Materials:

Online application form
CV/resume
Single-page letter of interest that addresses relevant project management experience
Email and phone contact information for 3 references.

Application Process: Complete online application form and upload application materials via this link >>> Apply Now

Questions? Email us

African Critical Inquiry Programme Announces 2022 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards

July 11, 2022 By Jones

The African Critical Inquiry Programme has named Vanessa Chen, Min’enhle Ncube and Suzana Sousa as recipients of the 2022 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards. Chen, a South African student in the Department of Historical Studies, and Ncube, a Zimbabwean student in Social Anthropology, are both pursuing PhDs at University of Cape Town. Sousa is an Angolan student in History and a doctoral fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape. Support from ACIP’s Ivan Karp Awards will allow each of them to do significant research for their dissertations. Chen will work in Dutch archives for her dissertation, Collecting and Convening the Visual and Material Cultural History of Chinese Convicts, Exiles and “Free Blacks” at the Cape (circa 1654-1838). Ncube will conduct fieldwork in Zambia for her project Mapping the Ethics of Care Associated with Artificial Intelligence Technologies in Healthcare Infrastructures in Zambia. Sousa’s award will support her research at Angolan museums for her project “Angola Avante?” Making and Contesting Political Narratives of the Nation through Art and Visual Culture.

Founded in 2012, the African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) is a partnership between the Centre for Humanities Research at University of the Western Cape in Cape Town and the Laney Graduate School of Emory University in Atlanta. Supported by donations to the Ivan Karp and Corinne Kratz Fund, the ACIP fosters thinking and working across public cultural institutions, across disciplines and fields, and across generations. It seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa through an annual ACIP Workshop and through the Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards, which support African doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences enrolled at South African universities.

About Vanessa Chen’s project:

Despite the documentary record of the early history of Chinese convicts, exiles, and ‘free blacks’ at the Cape (1654 – 1838) being fragmentary and scattered in multiple places, it is and should be seen as significant in the making of South Africa’s social history. Researchers have undertaken the task of bringing the stories of this subaltern group to the forefront, however, they have not reckoned with the making of this collection of documentary sources. Collecting and Convening the Visual and Material Cultural History of Chinese Convicts, Exiles, and “Free Blacks” at the Cape (circa 1654-1838) works to do so, and to re-curate these sources as an archive in and of itself. Chen’s dissertation examines the history of the extant documentary archival slivers that speak of Chinese presence at the colony alongside non-documentary materials, tracing and accounting for their presence and absence. She has already worked with archival sources in South Africa, and next will do on-site research at the National Archives of the Netherlands. Her final archival work will be in Indonesia. In the Netherlands, she will locate and collate records for document analyses, consult with archivists regarding the records’ biographies – their movement and reshaping to and from different repositories across time – copyright regulations and accessibility and negotiate permission to digitise and include the records in an eventual digital curation. Chen’s dissertation will enable a more comprehensive understanding of the nature and extent of the Cape Chinese archive, address deficiencies of colonial archiving, and underscore both the importance of representation and what can be made despite of the lack thereof.

About Min’enhle Ncube’s project:

Mapping the Ethics of Care will be the first in-depth ethnographic study on the ethics of care associated with artificial intelligence adopted in healthcare infrastructures in Zambia. Artificial intelligence software is increasingly being adopted to support healthcare infrastructure, raising issues underscored by postcolonial quandaries, neoliberalism from Copperbelt mining, and other developmental paradigms. Through eighteen months of research in Zambia, Ncube will investigate the creation of AI tools, the implications of adopting these into the healthcare infrastructures, and how this contributes towards the ethics of care in the area. The project will examine whether machine learning, its inputs of big data, and software development support or challenge the diversity and inequalities in southern Africa. Ncube’s project is a part of a larger strategic programme, Future Hospitals: 4IR and Ethics of Care in Africa, at the Institute for Humanities in Africa that reflects critically on data and AI’s implications for care infrastructures on the continent. Ncube will use epistemic disobedience (Mignolo 2011) as a framework to interrogate technology infrastructures, their epistemology, the fundamentals of ‘intelligence’ and its relevance in a post/neo-colonial landscape of care. With a dearth of literature on ethics associated with AI in the Global South, Ncube’s research addresses this gap in the context of broader anthropological inquiry in Zambia, which includes works from colonial-era and postcolonial Zambia (or Northern Rhodesia). It builds on scholarship regarding the anthropology of ethics and technology while fostering connections with past anthropological work to further the development of anthropology and social science in the region. The research also advances anthropology’s relevance in innovation praxis on the African continent.

About Suzana Sousa’s project:

“Angola Avante?” Making and Contesting Political Narratives of the Nation through Art and Visual Culture is concerned with the nation-building process in Angola after its independence in 1975, a process that occurred through arts and culture. It examines the history of cultural nationalism in the country and the political narrative that has engaged this history to legitimise the nation. This also involves exchanges between politics and visual culture in the context of civil war and the construction of national identity. The process of making the nation was enacted through cultural policy, national arts organisations, and museums that maintained an affinity with colonial ethnography. Sousa engages with the development of visual arts and the making of museums in the aftermath of the civil war. She argues that the policies and practices promoted by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) have continued to be entrenched in colonial categories and distinctions. Her research seeks to understand these complexities and contradictions through fieldwork in two museums in Angola, the Dundo Museum and the National Anthropology Museum. The latter was founded a year after independence in the country’s capital and the former is a colonial enterprise from 1936 located in the east of the country, in an area administered by the mining company Diamang. The museums’ locations, Luanda and Dundo, are also an entry point to the diverse constructions of identity within the nation.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Information about the 2023 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards for African students enrolled in South African Ph.D. programmes will be available in November 2022. The application deadline is 1 May 2023.

For further information, see http://www.gs.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html and https://www.facebook.com/ivan.karp.corinne.kratz.fund.

Mellon Foundation Grants the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) $250,000 to Support Capacity Building; Research, Restitution, and Community Building Projects

June 19, 2022 By Kehinde Shobukonla

CHICAGO (June 13, 2022) –– For the past forty years, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association has supported scholars, artists, and museum professionals engaged with the arts of Africa and its diasporas. Today, this professional organization received a prestigious quarter-million-dollar grant from the Mellon Foundation to bolster its organizational structure, providing a strong base for its critical support and advocacy projects.

Geared at capacity building, this grant falls under the Mellon Foundation’s Arts and Culture program, which aims in part to support historically under-resourced organizations and encourage “new structures and organizational models that reflect their holistic approach to social change.” Running from July 2022 through June 2025, this transformative award is the largest grant that ACASA has received in its history.

ACASA President Dr. Peju Layiwola (University of Lagos) notes “We are excited and elated at receiving a Mellon Foundation Grant. This guarantees that the work of the association will continue with renewed vigor, building on the efforts of our founding members and previous boards. This grant gives us hope for the future.”

Grant-Supported Projects

Hiring a Board Administrator/Project Manager to streamline structural organization; establish archives; and assist in planning and executing the 2024 Triennial Symposium of African Art. A job description and application for this position will be available on ACASA’s website in late July 2022.
Expanding ACASA’s global membership, with a focus on attracting Africa- and Caribbean-based members
Producing a free Wiki of Collectors & Dealers of Historical African Arts to address provenance challenges in the field, including restitution efforts.
Supporting the activities of ACASA’s Collaboration, Collections, and Restitution Best Practices for North American Museums Holding African Objects (CCRBP) working group.

Please direct inquiries to ACASA President Dr. Peju Layiwola (president@acasaonline.org)

About the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA)

The only professional organization in the United States dedicated to the study of African arts, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) facilitates communication among scholars, teachers, students, artists, museum specialists, collectors, and all others interested in the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora. Founded in 1981–82, ACASA is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. It sponsors the Triennial Symposium on African Art, the premier forum for presenting cutting-edge research on the art of Africa and its Diaspora, presenting awards for the best publications, exhibitions, and leaders in the field. Notable initiatives for promoting the advancement of African art scholarship include a book distribution project to support African and Caribbean museums and libraries, and a publication project that produced the landmark textbook A History of Art in Africa (Pearson Prentice Hall). For more information about the organization, its activities, and its global membership, visit acasaonline.org

African Critical Inquiry Programme

March 30, 2022 By Jones

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

AFRICAN CRITICAL INQUIRY PROGRAMME
IVAN KARP DOCTORAL RESEARCH AWARDS
FOR AFRICAN STUDENTS ENROLLED IN
SOUTH AFRICAN Ph.D. PROGRAMMES

Closing Date: Monday 2 May 2022

The African Critical Inquiry Programme is pleased to announce the 2022 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards to support African doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are enrolled at South African universities and conducting dissertation research on relevant topics. Grant amounts vary depending on research plans; the maximum award is ZAR 40,000.

The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of public culture, public cultural institutions and public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa. The Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards are open to African postgraduate students (regardless of citizenship) in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Applicants must be currently registered in a Ph.D. programme in a South African university and be working on topics related to ACIP’s focus. Awards support doctoral research projects focused on topics such as institutions of public culture, museums and exhibitions, forms and practices of public scholarship, culture and communication, and the theories, histories and systems of thought that shape and illuminate public culture and public scholarship. Awards are open to proposals working with a range of methodologies, including research in archives and collections, fieldwork, interviews, surveys, and quantitative data collection.

For full information about this opportunity and how to apply, see the Call for Proposals listed under “ACIP Opportunities” on our website: http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html.

ACIP is a partnership between the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape and the Laney Graduate School of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (USA).

Black Art In The Americas And The Afro-Atlantic

January 10, 2022 By Kehinde Shobukonla

The Department of Art at the University of Virginia is pleased to announce that it is accepting applications for a 2-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Black Art in the Americas and the Afro-Atlantic. Please find details below, with thanks for helping this posting reach the broadest possible audience.

Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellowship Program | The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

Review of applications will begin February 2, 2022.

The University of Virginia Department of Art and the Lindner Center for Art History hope to provide a departmental home to a Postdoctoral Fellow with expertise in Black Art in the Americas and the Afro-Atlantic. We invite applications from candidates who received, or will receive, their Ph.D. degree in the history of art or a related field between August 24, 2019 and August 24, 2022. The two-year fellowship is offered under the auspices of the Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, funded by the UVA Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Mellon Foundation. The Rising Scholars program reflects the College of Arts and Sciences’ ongoing commitment to diversifying its programs and the professoriate more broadly, as well as its mission to further our understanding of the legacies of racial inequity, to making progress toward racial equity and to support the career trajectories of underrepresented and historically excluded scholars whose research focuses on Race, Justice, and Equity.

We conceive of the Americas and the Afro-Atlantic world in capacious terms and would welcome research and teaching that brings a critical perspective to what constitutes “America” and its relationship to Black communities and art. Applicants whose research focuses on specific locales and those whose work spans transgeographic regions, networks, and communities are equally welcome. We are open to diverse research questions, historical periods, and methods, though we especially welcome scholars whose work explores how Black artists and their critics have come to challenge and expand the field of art history and/or explored the bounds and potentialities of artistic media.

The Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellow will join a faculty in the Ph.D. program in art and architectural history with existing strengths in the art, architecture, and visual culture of the Americas, the Afro-Atlantic world, and Africa from antiquity to the present, while adding new perspectives and areas of expertise. The UVA Department of Art brings together art and architectural historians distinguished by their broadly diverse research specializations alongside a dynamic and engaged faculty in studio art, and curatorial teams at the Fralin Museum and The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. This postdoctoral fellowship builds upon our recent Studio hire which put creative inquiry into Blackness and race in a central position in the Studio program.

The Department of Art is committed to providing our Postdoctoral Fellow with the mentorship and support essential for achieving their research and teaching goals. The Postdoctoral Fellow will also have the opportunity to join a rich interdisciplinary community with especially pertinent interlocutors in the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies, Caribbean Studies, Indigenous Studies, Global South Studies, Environmental Humanities, in addition to Charlottesville community institutions such as the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center. Additional opportunities for the support of superb teaching and research at UVA include the Center for Teaching Excellence, Equity Center, Institute of Humanities and Global Cultures, and the digital humanities community at DH@UVA.

Application deadline: February 1, 2022

Application through the website: https://graduate.as.virginia.edu/rising-scholars. Please contact Sarah Betzer, Interim Chair, Department of Art, with questions: sbetzer@virginia.edu

Announcing New Student Member Rates

December 7, 2021 By Kehinde Shobukonla

Student rates are now 15 USD for undergraduates, and 30 USD for graduate students (MA/PhD).

An ACASA Student Membership lets you…

Support your interest in African and African diaspora arts
Connect with colleagues across the globe via our events and Member Directory
Submit your PhD thesis for the Roy Sieber Dissertation Award (includes cash prize & article-writing mentorship)
Learn more about the field/share your news in our 3x a year Members Newsletter or via our social media accounts
Receive discounted rates for the Triennial Symposium on African
Gain opportunities to participate in ACASA-sponsored panels at major conferences like CAA and ASA ……and more!

PS. Based in Africa or the Caribbean? Membership is always free

Join ACASA Today

Please share this widely with the students in your life!

With global membership, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) promotes greater understanding of African material and expressive culture in all its many forms, and encourages contact and collaboration with African and Diaspora artists and scholars.

ACASA is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Transition: Atta Kwami, 1956 – 2021

December 7, 2021 By Kehinde Shobukonla

With a heavy heart, I deeply regret to announce the unfortunate passing of a dear friend, brother and colleague, (Dr.) Atta Kwami. Atta, as I called him, died on the afternoon of October 6, 2021 after succumbing to a fight with cancer.

He recently turned 65, on September 14, and we all wished him happiness, good health and long life. Even though I had learnt of the terminal nature of Atta’s illness, his positive response to all the birthday felicitations on social media was so heart-warming, little did I think he would leave us so soon. This makes his transition rather shocking and painful. He was hoping to have visited his dear homeland, Ghana, at least, for the last time, but it was never to be.

Atta Kwami was one of Ghana’s most internationally distinguished artists. He was not only a passionate and consummate painter, and installation artist, he was also an Art Historian, and wrote quite extensively on Ghanaian contemporary art. In 2013, he published the seminal book, “Kumasi Realism – An African Modernism, 1951 – 2007, which documented the development of contemporary art in Kumasi – Ghana’s second biggest city after Accra, the capital – where Kwami spent many years as student and lecturer at Ghana’s premier College of Art of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)

As a painter, Kwami had always had an experimental bent, right from the beginning. He started off as an Abstract Expressionist, working in the vein of the Action Painters, sticking pans and other detritus from the environment into his paintings. Shown in Ghana, they were quite a novelty on the largely conservative art terrain, where most artists at the time worked in the representational and figurative mode, intently capturing the genre of the day. His annual exhibitions he jointly held with the Painter/ Sculptor Kofi Setordji and the Painter Emmanuel Anku-Golloh at the Goethe Institute in Accra were very much looked up to with excitement. After many years, Kwami transformed from his earlier Ab Ex style of painting into a Geometric Lyrical Abstractionist, working with loosely constructed grids and strident but sonorous colors. His canvases vibrate with so much energy. In later years he translated these gridded paintings onto free-standing sculptures – monumental arcades, constructed with plywood, and kioks, which are ubiquitous in the Ghanaian urban landscape. While the gridded paintings on the arcades and kioks were hard-edged, his paintings on canvas remained loosely gridded.

Kwami established in Kumasi, Ghana the SaNsA International Artists Workshop, a wing of the International Triangle Artists Workshop (a brainchild of the British Master Sculptor Sir Anthony Caro), which brought local and international artists together for a couple of weeks, to work and exhibit their art. SaNsA in Ghana ran three iterations, from 2004 to 2009.

Kwami specially invited me to be part of the last installment of SaNsA in 2009, with my participation fee, boarding and lodging fully covered by the organization. Unfortunately, I couldn’t honor the invitation, because I had just lost my father and I was saddled with organizing his funeral. Later, in a phone conversation, Kwami told me what I had missed, that the event was immensely successful. “It was like an international biennale,” he excitedly chatted.

While teaching at KNUST, Kwami set up an avant-garde art journal, BAMBOLSE, with the assistance of two of his protégés, who were students at the Art College, the Painter and Musician Henri (Papa) Asare-Baah and the Painter George Afedzi Hughes. BAMBOLSE ran for a few years.

It is significant to mention here a distinguished art teacher of Kwami, who taught him in secondary school, at the prestigious Achimota School, in Accra, then, also, at KNUST Art College – preeminent Ghanaian Painter (Prof.) Ato Delaquis. Interestingly, they later became colleague teachers at the Art College, good friends and lived a few meters apart on the same street.

Kwami himself was born into an artistic family, his father, Robert Kwami, a music teacher and the mother, a prominent first generation Ghanaian contemporary artist, and teacher. She was Grace Kwami (nee Anku).

Kwami maintained studios between Loughborough, U. K. and Kumasi, Ghana.

Kwami and I participated in a number of major group exhibitions together, notable among them, (1): “West to West: Owusu-Ankomah and Friends,” 2013 at the State Gallery of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, which also featured Owusu-Ankomah himself, Bright Bimpong, Sokari Douglas Camp, Godfried Donkor, Romaould Hazoume, George Afedzi Hughes and Lawson Oyekan, and (2): “The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles/Recent Art,” at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, U. S. A, 2008, featuring other African giants, El Anatsui, Samuel Cophie, Viye Diba, Sokari Douglas Camp, Group Bogolan Kasobane, Abdoulaye Konate, Rachid Koraichi, Grace Ndiritu, Nike Okundaye, Owusu-Ankomah, Yinka Shonibare,, Malick Sidibe, Nontsikelelo “Lelo” Valeko and Sue Williams.

Kwami’s work was exhibited all over the world and featured in many important publications on contemporary African art. They found their way also into major private collections and museum holdings in Africa, Europe and the U. S. A., including, Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra, Ghana; Ghana National Museum, Accra, Ghana; Kenya National Museum, Nairobi, Kenya; The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (SNaMAA), Washington, D. C., U. S. A.; Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, U. S. A.; Metropolitan Museum and Brooklyn Museum, both in New York City, NY, U. S. A.; the V & A and the British Museums, London, U. K. . Earlier this year, 2021, Kwami deservingly won the 2021 Maria Lassing Foundation Prize, which had a 50,000 Euro (£42,000) component; an exhibition project with the Serpentine Galleries, London and a monograph publication in 2022.

Kwami was represented in the U. K. by the Beadsmore Gallery, London; in Switzerland by the Nicholas Krupp Gallery, Basel, and in the United States by the Howard Scott Gallery, Chelsea, New York. He had at least three solo shows with his New York gallery, Howard Scott, before it closed down a few years ago.

Two of some of Kwami’s monumental public sculptures, a twin arcade rendered in his usual hard-edge, gridded, colorful composition, and a small cluster of kioks, painted in a similar manner, were on display at the Folkestone Triennial 2021 from July 22 to November 2, 2021. The exhibition was on when Kwami sadly passed. The twin arcade was titled, “Atsiafu fe agbo nu,” in his native Ewe (Ghana) language, which literally translates to, “Gateways of the Sea,” The colorful kiosk, also titled in Ewe, “Dusiadu,” which translates to, “Every Town,” emphasizing the ubiquity of the kioks, which come in varied shapes and colors and are a constant presence along the roads iin the urban centers in most Sub-Saharan African countries, especially, in the artist’s own country, Ghana, as I intimated earlier. These works were specially commissioned for the Folkestone Triennial 2021, which is U. K.’s biggest urban outdoor contemporary art exhibition, in the Kent coastal town of Folkestone, a former seaport.

Kwami was a keen intellectual, very erudite, I must say. Apart from our art, we shared a common passion – a crazy, inveterate indulgence in profuse art literature, art history, libraries, books and writing. We would often discuss new books we were reading. Kwami was always very much abreast with new publications on art, especially, African art, and he would recommend a book or two to me. On one of his visits home from the U. K., he brought me a gift of the newly published catalog on El Salahi, accompanying his retrospective at the Tate Modern, London, which I appreciated very much. It has a special place in my library.

I do not know when Kwami joined ACASA (The Arts Council of the African Studies Association). As far as I could remember, he had always been a member of ACASA. He was already a member before the advent of the Internet in Ghana. He must have joined the association in the 1980s or early 1990s.

Being one of the longest standing living Ghanaian members of this august association, it was just appropriate the mantle fell on Atta Kwami to deliver the keynote address at the opening of the 17th ACASA Triennial Symposium on African Art, which took place in Accra, Ghana; at the verdant University of Ghana – Legon campus. This was the first time ACASA, obviously the biggest body in the world with its members specializing in the study and scholarship of African art, and the material and expressive cultures of the African continent, in its over-five-decades of existence was having its triennial conference on African soil.

From March through May 2010, Kwami was an artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D. C., which is strongly affiliated to ACASA, having won the second edition of the Philip Ravenhill Fellowship, the first having been won by the artist, writer, academic and fellow ACASA member, Dr. Tobenna Okwuosa. The Ravenhill Fellowship was awarded by the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Fowler Museum, another strong affiliate of ACASA, and instituted in memory of Philip Ravenhill, Chief Curator of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, (1987 – 97).

At the end of his residency at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Atta Kwami was in conversation with the esteemed Art Historian, Prof. Sylvester Ogbechie of University of California, Santa Barbara; who is, also, the Founder and Editor of the journal, “Critical Interventions, ” and a long-standing member of ACASA. This was in the Fall of 2010, at the Fowler Museum and it was part of the museum’s public programming, “Fowler Outspoken Conversation.” The topic under conversation was, “Africa and Modernity.” The two gentlemen explored modernity and African art as embodied in university and local art practices in West Africa, specifically, Ghana.

Atta was a gentleman, in the truest sense of the word. He always had a calm disposition about him and would welcome you with a broad smile. He was always gracious in his manners, generous and humble.

Atta Kwami died in the U. K. His mortal remains was interred in a simple but colorful ceremony, attended by friends and family, at the Prestwold Natural Ground Cemetery, Loughborough, in Central U. K. on Friday, October 15.

Atta Kwami was survived by his dear artist spouse, Printmaker Pamela Clarkson-Kwami. My heartfelt condolences to Pamela, his numerous friends and family (home and abroad) and the Ghanaian art world. Ghana has, indeed, lost a rare gem of an artist and an intellectual!

Journey well, my brother. I wish you eternal rest in the bosom of the Lord, our Creator.

DAMIRAFA DUE!!!…

DUE NE AMENEHU!!!!!!!…..

By Rikki Wemega – Kwawu