Author: Jacqueline Francis

Writer, researcher, educator, curator, arts consultant, and occasional artist in San Francisco, California. I'm Dean of the Humanities and Science Division at California College of the Arts.

“ONE PRESS, MANY HANDS: Diversity in the History of American Printing,” Oct. 25-27, 2019, University of Maryland (College Park)

Sign up for APHA’s first conference expressly devoted to the rich history of printing and publishing in America from diverse groups, with presentations that explore the intersections of printing history and the studies of Black, Jewish, and Latinx cultures, gender studies, and queer theory. Through lectures, panels, and workshops, participants will have the opportunity to engage with a critical exploration of the history of printing among America’s underrepresented communities.

REGISTER NOW! 

All are welcome; current APHA membership is not required for attendance. Please forward this e-mail to anyone you think might be interested in going. Registration fee: $150. Student rate: $100.

The conference this year has two keynote speakers: Kinohi Nishikawa, author of the 2018 book Street Players: Black Pulp Fiction and the Making of a Literary Underground; and the graphic designer and writer Colette Gaiter. Conference presentation subjects include: Spanish-language publishing in early 19th century New York; the construction of gender in early publishers’ bindings; slave labor in the print shop; the feminist possibilities of print; Fraktur and German nationalism in early American print culture; engravings and the illustrative renderings of skin color; hand-coloring in the production of 19th century Native American portraiture; and much, much, more.  

SEE FULL SCHEDULE HERE

APHA hopes to see you in College Park in October. Please don’t hesitate to contact them if you have any questions about the conference, or about APHA in general.  

Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide seeks DH Editor—Application Deadline Jun. 24, 2019

Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (NCAW), a scholarly, refereed digital journal founded in 2002 and devoted to the study of international art and visual culture of the long nineteenth-century, is accepting applications for a digital humanities editor.

NCAW seeks a candidate with a broad view of nineteenth-century art and visual culture and with knowledge of the conceptual and practical field of digital humanities. Technological expertise is not required, though candidates should hold a PhD or have earned ABD status in a PhD program. Ideal candidates will express ongoing willingness to stay abreast of debates in the field of digital humanities as well as to identify and participate in professional development in the field. They should be intellectually-rigorous, detail-oriented, and willing to collaborate with authors and other members of the editorial team.

The digital humanities editor actively pursues digital humanities projects and works in a hands-on capacity with authors to develop the scholarly and digital aspects of their articles.

Specific responsibilities include:

·      reviewing proposals

·      creating production schedules and guiding articles from proposal to publication

·      communicating frequently with authors to provide feedback on developing digital components and scholarly texts

·      liaising with the journal’s web developer

·      managing peer reviews

A pioneer in digital publishing, NCAW is committed to publishing innovative digital projects and to integrating digital modes of data and image presentation in its bi-annual articles. You can find NCAW’s previously published digital humanities articles here:

https://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/digital-humanities-and-art-history

All positions on NCAW’s editorial board are voluntary.

Please send a letter of interest and a CV to the journal’s executive editor Isabel Taube at taubeisa[at]gmail.com. 

Deadline: June 24, 2019.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Awarded an NEH grant for 2019-2021 from the Division of Preservation and Access, The Digital Piranesi (digitalpiranesi.org) is based at the University of South Carolina (Columbia), where the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections owns a rare full 29-volume set of Piranesi’s complete works. Our project aims to make this interdisciplinary material accessible in a complete digital collection and, in an interactive digital edition, to illuminate and enact many of the graphic features of his innovative designs. A Ph.D. in a relevant discipline (including but not limited to Art History, History of Architecture, Classics, Comparative Literature, European History, Italian, Library and Information Science) is required to start work.

Please direct any questions to project PI Jeanne Britton: jbritton@mailbox.sc.edu

For the official job ad, and to apply, please see:

https://uscjobs.sc.edu/postings/57022

Luce Curatorial Fellowship at SAAM (Apply by July 15, 2019)

The Smithsonian American Art Museum seeks an outstanding emerging scholar of American art for a curatorial fellowship funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. Beginning in fall 2019, this two-year position, with a possible third-year renewal, will provide an invaluable professional development opportunity to a scholar interested in a curatorial career in an art museum. It will also support scholarly research on SAAM’s permanent collection, one of the largest and most inclusive collections of American art in the world. The selected fellow will work under the supervision of an experienced curator and in collaboration with a team of staff from various departments on a major project. The appointee will develop practical skills in all four areas of curatorial practice: research, exhibition development, collections management and planning, and public service. He or she will also participate fully in the intellectual life of the museum’s Research and Scholars Center, home of its research fellowship program and journal, American Art.

 

The ideal candidate will demonstrate scholarly excellence and promise in addition to a strong interest in a museum career. A PhD in art history within the last five years is preferred; however, the fellowship is open to individuals with other academic specialties, such as African American and Women’s Studies. Applications are requested from scholars whose interests and areas of expertise align with one of the museum’s collection strengths and current curatorial initiatives:

 

  • Sculpture: SAAM holds the largest collection of American sculpture in the world with deep strengths in 19th- and 20th-century bronze and marble sculpture and key holdings in works by Hiram Powers, Edmonia Lewis, Paul Manship, and Luis Jiménez. The fellow will work closely with the curator of sculpture to develop a major collections-based project and book tentatively titled, “Skin Deep: Race and American Sculpture.” This research project aims to use sculpture, with its intrinsic and enduring ties to the body, as a tool for charting shifting attitudes on race in American public life.
  • 20th-Century Art: The museum’s rapidly expanding holdings include in-depth collections of painting, photography, graphic art, Latinx art, African American art, sculpture, and time-based media. The fellow will work closely with SAAM’s curator of 20th-century art on research and planning for the reinstallation of the museum’s 20th-century collections. This project aims to articulate collection strengths as well as amplify the presentation of art and artists currently under-recognized within the museum’s holdings, including conceptual, performance, and feminist artists, as well as women and artists of color. The curatorial fellow will be a full member of the curatorial team planning the larger reinstallation and reinterpretation of the museum’s permanent collections.

Application deadline July 15, 2019. Read more about the fellowship and how to apply here: https://americanart.si.edu/about/careers/luce-curatorial-fellowship

Lecture on the Making of the American “Oriental” — SF Public Library, Sat., May 11, 2019, 2 PM

 

978-0-252-08325-9-frontcover

Call for Applications from Recent MFAs and PhDs: Future Faculty Program at RIT (Deadline: May 15, 2019)

The Rochester Institute of Technology’s Future Faculty Career Exploration Program (FFCEP) is currently accepting applications for the class of 2019. This program is design for historically underrepresented minority scholars to explore potential faculty careers.

Participants will:

network with faculty, chairs, deans, and administration;

hold a job talk presentation on their research; and

learn more about the culture and values of the institution straight from RIT’s diverse faculty and students; and so much more.

The application deadline is Wed, May 15, 2019.

Please remember that you will need to upload four documents with your application:

  • CV
  • Cover letter that includes your diversity statement
  • Research statement (MFA scholars submit an artistic statement)
  • Teaching statement

The Future Faculty Career Exploration Program provides an opportunity to find out what it is like to be a faculty member at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This all-expenses paid program is an opportunity for historically underrepresented minority scholars, artists, and researchers to visit RIT for a prospective look at a faculty career. The program will take place September 25-28, 2019.

RIT has seen nearly 300 scholars participate in the program since its inception 15 years ago.  The feedback is amazing – the program helped to prepare them for the rigors of the job search, and also enlightened them to opportunities at RIT.

To learn more about the program and to apply click here.

 

Medieval Studies: Definitions, Debates, and the Parameters of the Field

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Image by Mikel Jaso. Published in New York Times, May 5, 2019, here.

 

Yesterday’s front-page article in the print edition of New York Times bore the headline “Symbols of Past Used by Right Upset Scholars.” That the online version’s header is “Medieval Scholars Joust with White Nationalists. And One Another” is a rhetorical shift worth questioning.

The article’s many directions are equally fascinating:

*the culture of the International Congress on Medieval Studies;

*demographics of the field of European Medievalism;

*narratives of the Anglo-Saxon race—roots, routes, and modernity—in Europe and the US;

*critical theory, feminist critique of power and patriarchy, and decolonizing a field;

*apolitical scholarship as an ideal;

*the Medievalists of Color group;

*white privilege and white fragility;

*Facebook fights and the resource of social media;

*white nationalism and white chauvinism—past and present;

*overhauling the academic conference submission process;

*the Belle da Costa Greene Award (est. 2018) and passing for white.

The Times reporter Jennifer Schuessler runs through these topics differently. She conveys the complexity of terrain in some passages and displays her amusement with the debates in others. “A field increasingly torn by vitriolic spats and racial politics”—anchorage text on the jump page in the print edition—sadly demonstrates the limited way in which Schuessler and the editor who worked with her on this piece see things.

There’s nothing easy about change in twenty-first century academia: it’s well- communicated in the letters accompanying the article—634 of them at present count. They’re worth a look.

This year’s International Congress on Medieval Studies Conference opens in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Thurs., May 9. The next day, May 10, is the anniversary of Greene’s death.

 

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Belle da Costa Greene. Photo by Clarence White. Published on Pinterest.

Da Costa Greene (born Dec. 13, 1879/1883 in Alexandria Virginia; died May 10, 1950 in New York) was elected of fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1939. A librarian at Princeton and later for J. P. Morgan, Greene was the director of the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1924 to 1928.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAA 2019/NY Conference: Committee on Diversity Practice-recommended Sessions

If you’re in New York for the College Art Association’s annual conference, check out:

 

*Wednesday, February 13, 2019 / 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM

Title: State of the Art (History): Engaging Difficult Topics In And Out Of the Classroom

Location: New York Hilton Midtown – 3rd Floor – Trianon Ballroom

Chair: Parme P. Giuntini, Otis College of Art and Design:

Link: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Session/1946

 

*Saturday, February 16, 2019/2 PM – 3:30 PM

Title: Faculty Inclusivity: A Way Forward

Location: New York Hilton Midtown – 2nd Floor – Sutton South

Co-chairs: Flora Brooke Anthony, Kennesaw State University; Nicole De Armendi, Converse College

Link:

https://caa.confex.com/caa/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Session/2270

 

*Saturday, February 16, 2019 / 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Title: CAA Open Forum on Diversity and Inclusion– 

Location: New York Hilton Midtown – Concourse – Concourse B

Panelists: Julie L. McGee, University of Delaware, Roberto J. Tejada, University of Houston, Jim Hopfensperger, Western Michigan University and Hunter O’Hanian, College Art Association
Link:
https://caa.confex.com/caa/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Session/3212

New resource about artist Maud Sulter (1960-2008)

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Maud Sulter. Les Bijoux (The Jewels), 2002. Large-format, colour Polaroid photograph. Source here and discussed here.
There is a newly published website about the late, Scottish-Ghanaian artist and writer Maud Sulter:
The publishers of the site make this request:
“Please have a look round the site, there are lots of embedded links leading to more information on Maud’s exhibitions, publications and what’s happened in the past few years.
We need your help in circulating the website.  Please click, like and share the link with everyone who would be interested.”

Postdoctoral Fellow in African and African Diaspora Art History–Brandeis University (Applications due Jan. 15, 2019)

Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts invites applications for a two-year, non-renewable Florence Kay Postdoctoral Fellowship at the rank of Lecturer in African and African Diaspora Art, beginning in the Fall 2019. We welcome a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on African and African Diaspora Art History. The fellow will pursue their own research and writing and teach two courses (one per semester) while participating in and contributing to the rich intellectual life of the Brandeis community, in affiliation with the departments of African and Afro-American Studies and Fine Arts. The fellowship includes a salary of $58,000, plus benefits, with moving expenses (approximately $1,500), and a research fund of $4,000 per year. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in hand by the commencement of the fellowship, preferably received within the past six years.

Applications should be submitted through AcademicJobsOnline at: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/12822

Please include the following: a letter of interest outlining a research project and possible course offerings, sample syllabi, a CV, a writing sample of no more than 25 pages, and three letters of recommendation. First consideration will be given to applications submitted by January 15, 2019.

Brandeis recognizes that diversity in its student body, staff and faculty is important to its primary mission of providing a quality education. The search committee is therefore particularly interested in candidates who, through their research, teaching and/or service experiences, will increase Brandeis’ reputation for academic excellence and better prepare its students for a pluralistic society.

Brandeis University is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and strongly encourages applications from women and minority candidates.

Questions about the position can be directed to:

Kay Fellow Search c/o Jennifer Stern jstern@brandeis.edu

 

Application Materials Required:

Submit the following items online at this website to complete your application:

  • Cover Letter
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • sample syllabi
  • writing sample of no more than 25 pages
  • Three Reference Letters [Applicants need to add all their writers on their standard Coversheet and instruct the system to email the letter request notifications to the writers. The writers can’t login or submit letters without such an email.]
And anything else requested in the position description.

Further Info:

 
Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453