AIA Talks: Aspects of Africa, Feb. 17-19

Dr. Paula Girshick comes to Huntsville as a Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Professor. She is a Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at Indiana University, where she is also affiliated with the Center for Archaeology in the Public Interest. Dr. Girshick has had a distinguished career doing significant field research on the Benin Kingdom in Nigeria, and analyzing the cultural, political, and historical significance of the highly ritualized royal art of the Benin. She is an expert on the priestesses devoted to the powerful deity Olokun. She has published significantly on Benin art and her book, The Art of the Benin, published by the British Museum Press and the Smithsonian Institution, remains the most important survey of Benin visual culture. More recently, Dr. Girshick has turned her attention to the use of art and museums in establishing national identity in post-Apartheid South Africa. She also investigates the dynamics of the South African market for so-called “traditional” African art. At Indiana University Dr. Girshick teaches a wide range of fascinating courses that relate to her research areas: “Art and Commodity,” “Exhibiting Cultures: Museums, Exhibitions, and Worlds’ Fairs,” “Theories of Material Culture,” “The Anthropology of Tourism,” and “Public Art: Monuments and Memorials.”




February 17
Paula Girshick, Indiana University
Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Scholar Program
"Molders of the Gods: the Priestess as Artist in the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria"
Roberts Hall 419, 12:45 PM

February 17
Dr. Paula Girshick, Indiana University
Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Scholar Program
"There Are Three Things in the Palace That Are Threatening": Royal Ritual Symbolism in the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria"
Chan Auditorium
7:30 PM

February 18
Dr. Paula Girshick, Indiana University
Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Scholar Program
viewing and discussion of film "In and Out of Africa"
Union Grove Gallery 12:30

February 19
Dr. Paula Girshick, Indiana University
Humanities Center Visiting Eminent Scholar Program
"National Monuments and the Re-figuration of the Past in Post-Apartheid South Africa"
Chan Auditorium
7:30 PM