PASALA - Project for the Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa and The University of Iowa
Contributors
Other conference participants include Kimberly Miller, a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and John Peffer, a PhD candidate at Columbia University. Their papers are not included in this publication.
Susan Cooksey is a Ph.D. student in African Art History at the University of Iowa. Prior to entering the program, she completed an M.F.A. at the University of South Florida and an M.A. in Art History at the University of Florida. Supported by an African Studies Program Pre-Dissertation Research Grant, matching PASALA funds, and an University of Iowa Student Government Grant, she conducted research on women's art forms in southwestern Burkina Faso in the Summer of 1997. Ms. Cooksey is planning to return to Burkina Faso in the Fall of 1998 to contintue her work among Gouin and Tusya peoples in the Banfora area, and to begin writing her disseration: "Gendered Mediums: Divinatory Arts of Southwestern Burkina Faso Women ."
Joanna Grabski Ochsner is a Ph.D. candidate in African Art History at Indiana University. Her research focuses on the history and contemporary production of painter's art in Africa, especially Brazzaville, Congo and Dakar, Senegal. Her pre-dissertation research in Congo was supported by an Indiana University Office of International Programs Research Grant. She has received a Fulbright Hays Grant to conduct a year of doctoral research on contemporary painting in Dakar, Senegal for 1998. She is currently Research Assistant to the Curator of African Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Brigitte Hecker is a Master's student in African Art History at the University of Iowa. At the time of her presentation she was a senior at California State University, San Francisco. Her studies at the University of Iowa are supported by a Stanley Foundation Scholarship. Ms. Hecker plans on doing her graduate research in the Cross River Area of NigeriaJCameroon.
Kinsey Katchka is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology and African Studies at Indiana University. Using her B .A. degrees in International Relations and French, and an Art History minor, as a base, her graduate research focuses on urban art and politics, and the institutionalization of popular art. Her pre-dissertation research in Senegal was funded by the Skomp Fellowship, Skomp Pre-Dissertation Reasearch Grant, and International Enhancement Grant. She is preparing to return to Senegal in May 1998 for the Biennale des Arts Africains in Dakar, and again in September 1998 to continue her dissertation research project, "Everyday Art and Popular Life: Urban Art in Dakar, Senegal." Ms. Katchka currently works as a consultant at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Karen Milbourne is a Ph.D. student in African Art History at the University of Iowa. Before entering the graduate program as a Master's student, she worked at the Museum for African Art in New York City. Her research in Zambia has been supported by awards from the Explorer's Club Exploration Fund, Stanley Fellowship for Graduate Research Abroad, PASALA matching grant, University of Iowa Student Govemment Research Grant, and an Art History Society Research Grant. Ms. Milbourne is currently preparing to return to Zambia to conduct extensive doctoral research in September 1998 on her project, "Diplomacy in Motion: Art, Pageantry and the Politics of Identity in Barotseland."
Eileen Moyer is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology at the University of Iowa. Her work in Tanzania was supported by awards from the African Studies Program and PASALA. She has also recently completed a preliminary research trip to Haiti where she conducted work similar to that done in Tanzania. Ms. Moyer is currently funded by a FLAS Fellowship for Kiswahili. Her future research will continue in both Tanzania and Haiti and will focus on issues related to Medical Anthropology and Material Culture.
Fadhili Mshana is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History at the State University of New York, Binghamton. Prior to entering the Binghamton program, he completed his M.A. in Art History at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. His doctoral studies are funded by a Fulbright Grant for study in the United States. Mr. Mshana is currently writing his disseration, entitled: Society, Culture and ldentity: Zaramo Wood Sculpture as Subject to Historical Change, 1961-1990. He will return to his postion as Professor in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Dar es-Salaam, after completing his Ph.D.
Allen F. Roberts is Professor of Anthropology & African-American World Studies, Director of the African Studies Program, and CoDirector of a Project for Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa (PASALA) at The University of Iowa. His most recent books and exhibitions are co-authored and written with his spouse, the Africanist art historian Dr. Mary Nooter Roberts, and include A Sense of Wonder (1997, Seattle: University of Washington Press for the Phoenix Art Museum), Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History (1996, Munich: Prestel for The Museum of African Art, New York); and The Shape of Belief (1996, Seattle: University of Washington Press for the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums).
Christopher D. Roy is a Professor of the History of Art at The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History. He became interested in African art when, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, he served as director of the National Art Center in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 1970-72. He received a Ph.D. in African art history from Indiana University in 1979, based on research on Mossi masks. He carried out additional research in 1983, 84 and 85, and published "Art of the Upper Volta Rivers" (Paris) in 1987. He has served as curator of the Stanley Collection of African Art from 1985 to 1995. His most recent publication is Kilengi: African Sculpture from the Bareiss Collection (Hannover, Germany, 1997). Professor Roy is currently completing work on a CD-ROM program/Web site on African art.
Erin-Moira West is a MA student of African Art History at the University of Iowa. Supported by an Iowa Fellowship, she is writing her MA thesis on the expression of identity in Mardi Gras Black Indian performance. Ms. West is currently preparing for predissertation research in the Summer of 1998 on Contemporary Art production and display in Maputo, Mozambique.