Ranging from ancient artifacts of the Western Sudan to twentieth-century visual culture in the U.S., this area of focus offers engagement with varied materials, art, architecture, material culture, and design from the African continent and its global diaspora. Faculty currently work at the intersections of archaeology, history, art history, and visual culture, and focus on ancient northeastern, northern, and western Africa; seventeenth through nineteenth-century North America; and twentieth-century southern Africa and the U.S.
Courses explore topics such as the material culture and history of the Nile Valley, ancient through early Islamic period African ceramics, African arts and design, African and African American material and visual culture, the history of photography, enslaved and free Black communities in North America, and Black internationalist movements. We emphasize skills in critical analysis of many kinds of sources, collaborative research, and curation and museum exhibition. Faculty-student collaborations have included the recent exhibition SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa. Numerous scholars working in this area have shared their work at BGC during fellowships, and in talks and symposia, including Exhibiting Africa: State of the Field in African Art and the Diaspora and Revealing Communities: The Archaeology of Free African Americans in the Nineteenth Century, both of which will soon have related books published in BGC’s Cultural History of the Material World series.
Courses explore topics such as the material culture and history of the Nile Valley, ancient through early Islamic period African ceramics, African arts and design, African and African American material and visual culture, the history of photography, enslaved and free Black communities in North America, and Black internationalist movements. We emphasize skills in critical analysis of many kinds of sources, collaborative research, and curation and museum exhibition. Faculty-student collaborations have included the recent exhibition SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa. Numerous scholars working in this area have shared their work at BGC during fellowships, and in talks and symposia, including Exhibiting Africa: State of the Field in African Art and the Diaspora and Revealing Communities: The Archaeology of Free African Americans in the Nineteenth Century, both of which will soon have related books published in BGC’s Cultural History of the Material World series.
