The Grapevine

PhD Opportunity at the Institute for Black Atlantic Research (UK) — Applications Due Feb. 28, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-02-13 at 2.55.10 PM.pngUndated photo of Stuart Hall, at IBAR

Applications are invited for a full time PhD (via MPhil) studentship in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Institute for Black Atlantic Research. The studentship is tenable for up to 3 years full-time [subject to satisfactory progress] and will cover the cost of tuition fees at UK/EU rates and a maintenance grant of £7750. International applicants may apply but will be required to pay the difference in tuition fees. The studentship is funded through the Stuart Hall Foundation.

Supervisory team to include Professor Lubaina Himid & Professor Alan Rice.

Project Description

This project will investigate the consequences for artistic process of the Black presence in Northern Britain. It will first research the histories of slavery and migration and historic, cultural and theoretical responses to them in the context of Black Atlantic Cultural Studies before undertaking a creative practice project to make new work looking at either the historical or contemporary manifestations of Black culture in the North. It takes as its starting point the idea that there is an inherent metropolitan and London-centric bias in the discussion of Black culture in Britain and will itself undertake original research and creative practice that works to highlight hitherto neglected and forgotten cultural histories and practices. The project will consist of the creative practice itself and a theoretically and academically informed written up justification of the practice.

Candidates should have (or expect to hold) a UK Bachelor of Arts degree at 2:1 or above in a related area (or equivalent qualification), or a Masters level qualification.

International applicants require an English Language level of UKVI IELTs 6.5 (no sub-score below 6.0) or equivalent qualification.

Further information

For an informal discussion about the project please contact Professor Alan Rice email: arice@uclan.ac.uk

For the application form and full details please visit http://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/study/studentships.php and download an application pack. This will be available during the week beginning 13th February.

Completed application forms should be returned to the Research Student Registry email researchadmissions@uclan.ac.uk

Closing Date: 28 February 2017

Proposed Interview Date: 13 March 2017

 

CFP: “Colonial Caribbean Visual Cultures” special issue of Atlantic Studies: Global Currents

Special Issue: “Colonial Caribbean Visual Cultures”

This multidisciplinary collection will examine the creation and circulation of colonial visual cultures from the Caribbean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The era of Caribbean slavery placed the islands at the centre of the production and movement of goods, ideas, money and peoples, as well as cultural conflicts, exchanges and hybridities which created new challenges for artists, and new ways of looking. As a cornerstone of European imperial expansion the Caribbean had an enormous imaginative influence on Europe and the wider world. Tropical vistas and diverse peoples provided new visual subjects, and the art of the Caribbean participated in the circum-Atlantic movement of aesthetics, ideas and images: from mid-eighteenth-century georgic scenes which attempted to reconcile beauty with enslaved labour, to the colonial picturesque of the 1790s which rearticulated metropolitan landscape visions, to the unique botanical and zoological images which emerged from natural histories and travel narratives, and latterly to the early photography which marketed the West Indies to potential tourists. Significantly, the collection will position African-Caribbean, maroon, and indigenous material cultures at the centre of its exploration of how Caribbean visual cultures were related to the ways of seeing associated with modernity.

This collection invites contributors from history of art, literature, anthropology, history and geography and other disciplines to focus their attention on the specific dynamics of Caribbean visual cultures. What ways of seeing emerge under the conditions of slavery? How were images and objects produced, circulated and consumed in the colonial context? What were the relationships between text and image in pre-disciplinary forms such as the travel narrative? How did visual cultures operate across the heterogeneous cultures and geographies of the Caribbean islands? What were the relationships between colonial and metropolitan aesthetic images and practices? By focusing on the Caribbean islands and the circum-Atlantic production of imagery which they engendered, the essays in this volume will open up alternate genealogies and geographies for Caribbean art and ideas about the visual that are central to the emergence of colonial modernity.

Topics might include:

  • Circum-Atlantic aesthetics and the relationships between metropolitan and colonial visual forms;
  • Transnational contexts and intersections between empires;
  • Colonial ways of seeing and visual production under slavery;
  • Ways of disaggregating the ‘colonial gaze’;
  • Intersections between text and image;
  • Indigenous, slave and maroon cultures;
  • The visual representation of indentured labourers from Asia;
  • The impact of Caribbean visual cultures on those of Europe;
  • Natural history, science and medicine; travel narratives and other pre-disciplinary forms;
  • How objects shift through value systems, functions and contexts,
  • Ideas of vision in the context of colonial modernity.

Successful essays will be included in a special issue of Atlantic Studies: Global Currents

Please submit a 500-word abstract and a brief cv by 15 March 2017 to Emily Senior and Sarah Thomas: e.senior@bbk.ac.uk; sarah.thomas@bbk.ac.uk

Deadline for full scripts will be 15 November 2017

Q&A with Lubaina Himid–“Black British Art,” Then and Now

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Lubaina Himid, The Rapid Effects of Abolition, from the Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service series (2007), an assortment of overpainted plates, bowls and terrines at A-N.

Lubaina Himid is enjoying two one-artist exhibitions in the UK this year. Check out her interview with A-N and her piece in Frieze on her influences. About time!

lubaina-himid-mashulan

Lubaina Himid’s grandmother, MaShulan, photographed in Zanzibar in 1954, and reproduced as a poster for the exhibition ‘New Robes for MaShulan – Lubaina Himid, Work Past and Present’, Rochdale Art Gallery, 1987. Courtest: the artist at Frieze

 

 

BRMC Looking for an Executive Director

Executive Director, Black Metropolis Research Consortium (Chicago, IL)

Requisition Number: 102021
Division / Dept.: IT and Digital Scholarship / Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Reports to: Associate University Librarian for IT and Digital Scholarship
Work Schedule: 37.5 hours per week; Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

General Summary

The Black Metropolis Research Consortium is a Chicago-based membership association of libraries, universities, and other archival institutions with a mission to make broadly accessible its members’ holdings that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a special focus on Chicago. The consortium also advocates for the preservation, enhancement, growth, and use of these materials, and the diversity of the information professionals who care for them.

The Executive Director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) provides strategic leadership and operational management for the BMRC’s activities.

In partnership with the BMRC Board of Directors, the Executive Director sets strategic goals and pursues funding opportunities to support BMRC initiatives. The Executive Director is responsible for the Consortium’s day-to-day management and operations. The Executive Director serves as the principal spokesperson for the BMRC to raise its profile both locally and nationally in order to develop new partnerships, recruit new members, and spread awareness of BMRC activities and programs. The Executive Director works closely with the Board on consortium policies, protocols, governance, grant applications, and especially fundraising initiatives. The Executive Director also manages the relationships with current members to ensure their needs are met and their interests are represented.

This position reports to the Associate University Librarian for Information Technology and Digital Scholarship at the University of Chicago, which acts as the BMRC’s host institution and fiscal agent. The position oversees BMRC staff and works with directors, administrators, and faculty at member institutions to manage collaborative projects, internship programs, and the summer fellows program.

Essential Functions

Leadership and Planning:

  • Communicates a compelling vision for the collecting and use of African American archival and special collections.
  • Provides strategic leadership for BMRC projects and activities and works with the BMRC Board to develop and implement long- and short-term goals.
  • Represents BMRC in the local community through presence and involvement in black cultural heritage organization events and activities.
  • Fosters a national reputation for BMRC and facilitates collaboration with related communities through engagement with regional, national, and (where applicable) international conferences, networks, and public events.
  • Develops a national network of scholars and archivists and a broad knowledge of programs and organizations relevant to BMRC subject areas to inform BMRC initiatives.
  • Serves (ex officio) on the BMRC board. Works with BMRC Board Chair to develop meeting agendas, facilitate board initiatives, and make recommendations on Board recruitment. Works with the board on governance structure through the development of ad hoc and advisory committees. Oversees the Annual Meeting of the Faculty Steering Committee.

Program Management:

  • Oversees BMRC projects and programs, including the archival collections survey and database, the Archie Motley Interns, and the Summer Fellows, providing training and orientation necessary to ensure effective and successful programs.
  • Coordinates existing consortium relationships and meetings.
  • Recruits additional BMRC members by reaching out to relevant institutions, community and faith-based organizations, and individuals.
  • Pursues sponsorships to support BMRC events.
  • Writes grant proposals and manages the administration of grants awarded to the University of Chicago in support of all BMRC initiatives and events.
  • Hires, trains, and supervises all administrative and programmatic BMRC staff, and outside consultants as needed.

Communication:

  • Writes and distributes monthly and annual reports on BMRC activities to the Board of Directors, University of Chicago Library, and BMRC members.
  • Visits member institutions to steward effective outreach and engagement and to facilitate BMRC activities at member sites.
  • Oversees the promotion of relevant programming of members through the BMRC website, newsletter, and social networking sites.

Other duties as required.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution required.
  • Master’s or other advanced degree preferred.
  • Experience providing leadership and management of operations that balance long term planning with the daily activities of multiple concurrent projects required.
  • Previous experience in nonprofit, library, archival, public history, or museum organizations preferred.
  • Experience with budget management and planning preferred.
  • Experience developing successful grant proposals and fundraising initiatives preferred.
  • Experience with conference planning preferred.
  • Excellent verbal and written communications skills, including the ability to communicate to large groups as well as one-on-one with students, senior management, faculty, alumni, community members, and others, required.
  • Demonstrated success in building collaborative relationships with diverse constituencies required.
  • Ability to navigate the challenges of working within a complex, decentralized environment required.
  • Willingness and ability to travel, and to work some evenings and weekends required.

To Apply

To apply for this position submit your profile and required materials to https://jobopportunities.uchicago.edu. Resumes sent via mail, fax, or email will not be considered.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or status as an individual with disability.

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity / Disabled / Veterans Employer.

Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process may contact Human Resources by calling 773-834-1841 or by emailing recruitment@uchicago.edu with their request.

For more info

REF: Amrita Sher-Gil

On the 30th of January 1913, famous Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil was born to a Hungarian Jewish opera singer mother and a Punjabi Sikh aristocrat father in Budapest, Hungary. She trained at an early age at Santa Annunziata art school in Florence, then at 16 in Paris at Grande Chaumière under Pierre Vaillant and Lucien […]

via Iconic Women in Art: Amrita Sher-Gil — A R T L▼R K

JOB: Chief Curator (including African American Art collection), University Museums @ University of Delaware

Deadline:  March 1, 2017

Pay Grade: 32E

Reporting to the Director of Special Collections and Museums, the Chief Curator performs the following responsibilities:

  • Envision and implement an innovative exhibition program that supports the university’s educational mission and curriculum and enhances the University of Delaware’s standing as a cultural center. Collaborate with the Director and members of the Special Collections staff in development of long-range exhibition plan. Develop and oversee exhibition budgets.
  • Identify and recommend realizable exhibition ideas. Curate exhibitions for Old College Gallery and Mechanical Hall Gallery, and manage curatorial efforts of faculty, graduate students, museums staff, guest curators as well as incoming exhibitions. Oversee installation design and successful implementation.
  • Ensure excellent program communications. Write and edit a range of texts in conjunction with exhibitions, including but not limited to essays, labels, promotional texts and grant proposals. Oversee all exhibition publications, both print and electronic.
  • Identify area collectors and donor prospects and funding opportunities and develop relationships beneficial to the museums.
  • Provide leadership for University Museums department including supervision of 3.5 FTE positions and participation on the Library Management Council

Qualifications: 

  • Ph.D. in art history or related field and a minimum of five years curatorial experience in a museum setting or a master’s degree in art history or related field with 8 or more years curatorial experience in a museum setting.
  • Subject expertise and curatorial experience related to the strengths of the collection:  American art, 1900 to the present (including African American art); photography, prints and drawings
  • Substantial experience providing leadership and supervision.
  • Demonstrated creativity and success in presenting diverse collections of art in a manner that engages students and supports the curriculum.
  • Proven experience as a team leader with excellent interpersonal skills.
  • Highly developed organizational skills with ability to work independently and as part of a team.
  • Outstanding oral and written communications skills.
  • Desire to work with and engage students, faculty, donors, and members of the public.
  • Familiarity with Past Perfect and WordPress preferred

General Information:

The recent merger of Special Collections and Museums at the University of Delaware Library brought together diverse collection of art, with special strengths in American art of the 20th century (especially prints, photographs and work by African American artists), European prints, Inuit art, Pre-Columbian art and minerals, with books, manuscripts, broadsides, periodicals, pamphlets, maps and ephemera from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. Art exhibitions in Old College Gallery and Mechanical Hall Gallery, mineralogical exhibitions in Penny Hall, and exhibitions in the Morris Library engage students, scholars, the UD community and the general public. Collaborative initiatives and programming with students, faculty and departments across campus foster diversity and enhance interdisciplinary research and teaching. Additional information about Special Collections and Museums is available online at: http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/ and http://www.udel.edu/museums.

To Apply: Include cover letter and resume, along with the names and contact information of three employment references, in a single document, following University of Delaware application instructions at http://www.udel.edu/udjobs/.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Employment offers will be conditioned upon successful completion of a criminal background check. A conviction will not necessarily exclude you from employment. The University of Delaware is an Equal Opportunity Employer which encourages applications from Minority Group Members and Women. The University’s Notice of Non-Discrimination can be found at http://www.udel.edu/aboutus/legalnotices.html

How Ya Like Me Now?

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Last week The Guardian reported on this ridiculously dumb blunder (a euphemism for what it really was).

Richard Dyer, more than twenty years ago, wrote about the position of whiteness as the norm, and this incident reminds us that theories trickle down at variable rates.

Hard not to think of David Hammons’ bitingly incisive  How Ya Like Me Now? (1988), a piece that generated its own complicated response. As is the case with so many Hammons’ projects, How Ya Like Me Now?  seems to speak to our moment, too.

CFP: 4th International Colloquium on Latinos in the US — Abstracts due Jul. 19, 2017

Casa de las Américas (Havana, Cuba) will be the site for a meeting (Oct. 16-20, 2017) focused on the theme “Socialization of Latinos in the United States: Education, Religion and Mass Media.”

The meeting intends to produce a thorough debate regarding the socialization processes that influence the relationships between migrants and their children in American society.

Participants will reflect on the perspectives Latinos in the United States as social subjects immersed in new socialization spaces that create formal educational processes that constitute breakpoints in the establishment of American society while being at the same time participants of informal processes that are substantiated by other socializing agents such as religions and their institutions; and the media and social networks on the Internet. Music and sports are areas that we also want to highlight in order to make them objects of analysis.

 

The Colloquium, consistent with the goals of previous meetings, will create a space of action with the presence of people of Latin American and Caribbean origins who are linked to the arts, literature and social sciences and humanities.

The following are proposed as central themes:

  1. Socialization of Latinos in the United States.
  2. Educative processes for Latinos in the United States as it relates to undocumented students and informal educational spaces.
  3. Public sphere, image and representation of Latinos in mass media.
  4. Music and socialization.
  5. Religions and their institutions as spaces for socialization of Latinos in the United States.

In addition, one of the working sessions will be dedicated to discussion of the history of Cuban emigration to the United States, the insertion of Cubans and Cuban Americans in the Latino communities, and the influence of the new scenarios in Cuba-U.S. relations. Furthermore, tribute will be paid to the life and work of the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta.

ABSTRACTS AND PAPERS

Scholars interested in taking part in the Colloquium may submit individual papers or panels. In either case, the following guidelines should be followed:

  • An abstract of no more than 250 words should be submitted before July 20th, 2017 with the title and name of the author and institution of origin.
  • The conference papers will not exceed 15 pages (double-spaced) which is equivalent to 20 minutes of oral reading.
  • Participants should bring along with the printed text of their presentations, making use of the international standards for notes, citation and bibliography, and the original text in digital format on a flash memory drive or a CD- ROM.RECOMMENDATIONS

    To facilitate your transfer and stay in Cuba, please contact your travel agent or:

    CASA DE LAS AMÉRICAS
    3a y G, El Vedado, La Habana, 10 400, Cuba,
    Telephone: (537) 838-2706/09, ext. 129. Fax: (537) 834-4554

    Emails: latinos@casa.cult.cu; http://www.casadelasamericas.org

 

Instruccíon en español

 

 

Opportunity for Historians of 19th and early 20th-century African American Architecture and Material Culture and Louisiana History and Culture

Betty Reid Soskin is the granddaughter of Louis Charbonnet (1869-1924), architect and builder of Corpus Christi Church and School in New Orleans.  Ms. Soskin has information and memorabilia about her grandfather that she would like to share with reputable researchers of 19th and early 20th-century African American architecture and material culture, and/or Louisiana history and culture.

Initially, a creator of ornamental iron work, Louis Charbonnet became an engineer, inventor and millwright.  His New Orleans business establishment dates to 1893.  After St. Louis School was destroyed in a 1915 storm, Charbonnet drew plans for its reconstruction and supervised the project.

To learn more, contact Ms. Soskin cbreaux@earthlink.net

Also see Betty Reid Soskin’s blog!

louischarbonnetsr

Photo of Louis Charbonnet Sr. at “The Charbonnets” homepage

New ACRAH website feature!

The Association of Critical Race Art History (ACRAH) is excited to announce a new feature on our website: a bibliographic resource devoted to issues of race, ethnicity, art, and visual culture. Please visit Bibliographies to view.

In conjunction with the launch of this resource, a series of reading groups are being organized in New York, the Bay Area, Washington D.C., and Boston. The primary purpose of these groups are to give area scholars an opportunity to discuss key texts pertaining to the visualization and representation of races and the project of racialization in art and visual culture. If you are interested in participating in an established group, or would like to start a group in your area, please visit Reading Groups for additional information.