CURRICULUM VITAE
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy
2015
University of Florida
Art History
Dissertation: Unleashing the Black Fantastic: Afrofuturist Feminism in Contemporary Art
Master of Arts
2013
University of Florida
Art History
Thesis: “Re-Visioning the Legacy of Slavery and Emancipation in Artis Lane’s Portrait Bust of Sojourner Truth and Alison Saar’s Swing Low”
Bachelor of Fine Arts
2007
University of Wyoming
Art
Senior Thesis: “Abandoning the Negress and Recovering Laure in Manet’s Olympia”
TEACHING
Fall 2017 – Present Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts
Fort Valley State University
· African American Art History
· Art History Survey
· Art Appreciation
Fall 2016 Limited-Term Instructor in the Department of Art
University of West Georgia
· History of Western Art I
· Oral Communication in the Visual Arts
Spring 2016 Part-Time Instructor of Art
Georgia Gwinnett College
· Art Appreciation
Fall 2015 Part-Time Assistant Professor of Art History
Kennesaw State University
· Art Since 1900
· Research Methodologies of Art History
· Survey: Renaissance through Modern Art
2014-2015 Teaching Assistant
University of Florida
· Art Appreciation
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Figuring It Out: Black Womanhood through the Figurative in the Oeuvre of Alison Saar. Manuscript in preparation.
Charting the Afrofuturist Imaginary in African American Art: The Black Female Fantastic. New York: Routledge Press, 2022.
Refereed Journal Articles
“(re)Imagining Topsy: Finding Significance in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Social Justice Cypher.” Manuscript submitted for publication.
“Analog Girls in a Digital World: Fatimah Tuggar’s Afrofuturist Interventions in the Politics of “Traditional” African Art,” Nka: The Journal of Contemporary African Art 33 (Fall 2013): 70-79.
“From the Corner to the Capitol: (re)Visioning the Legacy of Slavery in the Memorial Landscape.” International Review of African American Art. 26.2 (2016): 10-17.
“Afrofuturism and the Technologies of Survival” African Arts 50.4 (Winter 2017): 18-23.
Book Chapters
“A Friendship Written in the Stars: The Artistic Constellation of Alma Thomas And Delilah Pierce.” In Feminist Friendships, Collaborations, and Networks in the Visual Arts, ed. Jennifer Griffiths. Belgium: Harvey Miller Publishers (Forthcoming).
“Barbie Girls in a Barbie World: Making a Transgressive Icon in Contemporary Art.” Barbie in the Media: The Cultural Impact of Mattel’s Celebrity Doll! (Forthcoming).
“African American Art and Social Justice.” Reframing Art History. Smarthistory, March 21, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/african-american-art-social-justice/.
“Art and Activism as HBCU Tradition.” In Historically Black Colleges and Universities in a Globalizing World: The Past, Present, and Future, eds. Alem Hailu, Mohamed S. Camara, and Sabella Ogbobode Abidde. Lenham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Books, 2022.
Exhibition Catalogue Entry
“Alma Thomas.” Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2018.
Book Review
Rebecca Peabody. Consuming Stories: Kara Walker and the Imagining of American Race. Oakland: University of California Press, 2016. 9 September 2022. CAA Reviews,http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/4039#.YxtQDXbMKUl.
Other Writing
“Teaching with Primary Sources: Benny Andrews Inspires.” Archives of American Art Blog/Smithsonian Voices, 22 March 2022. https://www.aaa.si.edu/blog/2022/03/teaching-with-primary-sources-benny-andrews-inspires.
“Alma Thomas Was the Godmother of Afrofuturism.” Harper’s Bazaar, 15 March 2022. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a39382593/alma-thomas-was-the-godmother-of-afrofuturism/.
Boy: Defending Our Black Sons’ Identity in America. Gainesville, Florida: MTE Publications, 2020.
AWARDS AND HONORS
2024 American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) HBCU Faculty Grantee
2024 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Awards for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
2023 Africana Digital Humanities Scholar, Clark Atlanta University
2021 CAA Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant
2021 Fort Valley State University 15th Annual Grantsmanship Training and Recognition Institute: Certificate of Recognition for Dedication and Accomplishments in Scholarly Research and Grantsmanship
2021 Archives of American Art's Teaching with Primary Sources Workshop
2021 Art Writing Workshop, a partnership between the International Art Critics Association/USA Section (AICA/USA) and The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant
2014 Student Creative Research Best of College Award, University of Florida
2013 University of Florida Doctoral Enhancement Award
2008-2015 McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, Florida Education Fund
2008 National Women’s Study Association-Women of Color Caucus Student Essay Award for “Abandoning the Negress and Recovering Laure in Manet’s Olympia”
EXHIBITION
A Different Mirror: (Re)Imagining Black Womanhood, 2011, Curator, Tubman African American Museum, Macon, GA.
CONFERENCES
Papers Presented
“Barbie Girls in a Barbie World.” “The Mundanity of Girlhood: Pleasure, Play, & the Everyday” Symposium. Girlhood Studies Collective. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. April 2024.
“The Black Female Fantastic.” 30 Years of Afrofuturism (and Still Going) Panel. College Art Association, Chicago, IL. February 2024.
“(re)Imagining Topsy.” Seminar: “Slavery, Memory, and African Diasporas.” Howard University, Department of History, Washington, D.C. February 2024.
“Troubled Domesticities.” Picturing Women at Work in the Nineteenth Century Symposium. Organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and University of British Columbia. November 2023.
“Figuring It Out: Black Womanhood through the Figurative in Alison Saar’s Oeuvre.” AHAA Virtual Lightning Round Talks. Association of Historians of American Art. October 2023.
“(re)Imagining Topsy: Finding Significance in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Social Justice Cypher.” The Girl in Theory: Toward a Critical Girlhood Studies Symposium. Girlhood Studies Collective. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. March 2023.
“Artists as Guardians of Memory.” Visual and Aural Memory Making at the Annual Conference of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS). University of Nevada-Las Vegas. March 2022.
“Afrofuturism and the Technologies of Survival.” On Afro-pessimism and Its Alternatives Panel. College Art Association, Chicago, IL. March 2022.
“Narratives of Fugitivity.” Outer Space: Projecting Histories and Futures onto the Stars at the Claiming Space: A Symposium on Black Futures - Past, Present, and Potential. The Smithsonian Afrofuturism Series is a collaboration between the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Museum of African Art. January 2022.
“Narratives of Fugitivity: The Quilts of Harriet Powers.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. February 2021.
“Mammy as (anti)Heroine.” This is America Panel. College Art Association, New York, NY, February 2021.
“Unleashing the Black Fantastic: Afrofuturist Feminism in Contemporary Art.” Keynote Speaker. National Alliance of Artists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities Conference, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, 2015.
“Analog Girls in a Digital World: Fatimah Tuggar’s Afrofuturist Interventions in “Traditional” African Art.” Presentation at the Alien Bodies Conference: Race, Space, and Sex in the African Diaspora, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 2013.
“A Different Mirror: (Re)Imagining Black Womanhood.” Presentation at the Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting, Tubman African American Museum, Macon, GA, 2012.
“Tracing African American Geographies through the Oeuvre of Alison Saar.” Presentation at the Southern American Studies Association Biennial Conference: People, Publics, Places of the South, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 2011.
“Harriet Tubman’s (Afro)Future.” Presentation at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference in the Humanities: Word/ Image/ Culture, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, 2010.
“Re-visioning the Legacy of Slavery and Emancipation in Artis Lane’s Portrait Bust of Sojourner Truth and Alison Saar’s Swing Low.” Presentation at Many Voices—One Story? Public History Narratives of Native American and African American Histories, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 2010.
Panels
"Modernism and Appropriation of Black Female Bodies." "Contested Bodies: Black Women in Art and Culture," a convening series supported by a Terra Foundation for American Art grant and by institutional funds from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas at Austin, Tulane University, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Brown University, and California College of the Arts in San Francisco. April 2023.
“Star Light, Star Bright.” Panel Member. 1014: A Space for Ideas, New York, NY, 2022.
“Artists as Change Agents: The Role of Art in Social Justice Movements.” Moderator of Panel. Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, 2020.
“Wakanda in the Valley.” Panel Member. Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, 2018.
“Personal Politics Redux: Artist as Witness, Memory Keeper, and Social Conscience.” Moderator of Artist Panel. University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, 2016.
INVITED TALKS
“Harriet Tubman’s (afro)Future,” William H. Johnson Lecture Series. Albany Museum of Art, Albany, Georgia, 2022.
“Narratives of Fugitivity,” Chapman University, Orange, California, 2022.
“Afrofuturism and the Technologies of Survival,” Georgia Southwestern State University, Americus, Georgia, 2022.
“The Alchemy of Hair,” Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, 2021.
“Narratives of Fugitivity,” Georgia Southwestern State University, Americus, Georgia, 2021.
“Black Feminist Futures in Art History,” Brooklyn College, New York, NY, 2020.
“Narratives of Fugitivity,” Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 2020.
“Narratives of Fugitivity: Harriet Powers,” Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, 2016.
“Unleashing the Black Fantastic: Afrofuturist Feminism in Contemporary Art.”
Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, 2015.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
The Image of the Black in Western Art Archive, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Special Collections, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, MA
Woodruff Library Archives & Special Collections, Atlanta University Center, Atlanta, GA
Curatorial Archives of the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.
Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
College Art Association (CAA)
Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC)
The Association of Historians of American Art (AHAA)
Georgia Association of Historians (GAH)
Black Women’s Studies Association (BWSA)
