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Curriculum Vitae

Gitti Salami

1333 Connecticut Apt. 2
Lawrence, KS, 66044
773-344-2702
gittisalami@yahoo.com

 

Education

Ph.D.

University of Iowa
Department of Art and Art History, May 2005

Area of Concentration: Africa
Minor Fields of Concentration: Mesoamerican and Oceanic Art

Dissertation: “Ordinarily Extraordinary—Yakurr Priest-Chiefs’ Ritual Performances and the Leboku Festival.”
Advisor: Dr. Christopher Roy

Funding provided by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Scholarship,
US Department of Education, 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002

M.A.

University of Iowa
Department of Art and Art History, May 1999

Area of Concentration: Africa

Thesis: “The ‘Hinterland’ Of Calabar: Art History of the Cross River Region of Nigeria.”
Advisor: Dr. William Dewey

Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools,
April 2000       

B.A.                

San Francisco State University
Department of Art, May 1997

Summa Cum Laude

Publications

Articles

“Ubi Artist: Tribute to a Yakurr Artist from Mkpani,” Yakurr X-Ray 2:16(2002): 8 and 2:17(2002): 8.

"Popular Painting and Sculpture of Haiti: The Appeal of the Creole to the Post-modern Consciousness of Industrialized Nations," Baobab (1998): 17-29.

Book Review

The Nsukka Artists and Nigerian Contemporary Art, ed. Simon Ottenberg. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press., 2002; in African Art, 38:3 (Summer 2005).

Field Research

Honors and Awards

Seashore Dissertation Fellowship,
University of Iowa, Academic Year, 2003-04

Project for the Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa Dissertation Write-up Grant, University of Iowa, Academic Year, 2002-03

Wilhelm and Jane Bodine Fellowship
University of Iowa, Department of Art and Art History, Academic Year 2001-2002

Project for the Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa Tuition Scholarship
University of Iowa, Academic Years 1997-2002

Lucinda Mendenhalle Wilde Scholarship
University of Iowa, 2000

Stanley Fellowship for Overseas Research
University of Iowa, 1998

Student Government Research Grant
University of Iowa, 1998

Art History Society Travel Grant
University of Iowa, 1998

Student Government Scholarly Presentations Grant
University of Iowa, 1998

Fresno Art Center Scholarship
Fresno, California,1985

J. Eckle Starnes Scholarship
California State University, Fresno, 1985

Ina Gregg Thomas Memorial Scholarship
California State University, Fresno, 1984

Academy of Art College Scholarship
San Francisco, Scholarship, Summer 1980

Public Presentations

Conference Papers

“The 2001 Yakurr Riots and their Impact on the Performance of Saa,”
13th triennial symposium of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, Boston, Massachusetts, 31 March to 3 April 2004.

“Cardboard is what I have for right now: an African Teenager’s Pursuit of a Future in Aesthetics,”
46th annual meeting of the African Studies Association, Boston, Massachusetts, 30 October to 2 November 2003.

“Embodiment of Ambiguity: Yakurr Maidens and their Role during Leboku,”
Obermann Humanities Symposium: “The Cultured Body: African Fashion and Body Arts,” University of Iowa, 17-20 October 2002.

“Yakurr Leadership: The Use of Artistic Strategies in the Maintenance of Power.”
42nd annual meeting of the African Studies Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 11-14 November 1999.

“Yakurr Women’s Cultural Institutions,”
Project for Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa, Graduate Student Symposium, University of Iowa, 28 March 1999.

“From Fauces To Locus Consularis: The Nebulous Concept of the Threshold in Vesuvian Urban Society,”
University of California Santa Barbara Graduate Student Symposium, 5 April 1998.

“South Africa: Contested Transitions,” Joint Berkeley-Stanford Center for African Studies 1997 Spring Conference, Roundtable, 26 April 1997.

“Popular Painting and Sculpture of Haiti: The Appeal of the Creole to the Post-modern Consciousness of Industrialized Nations,”
Project for Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa, Graduate Student Symposium, University of Iowa, 16 March 1997.

Guest Lectures

"African Art: Historical and Contemporary Concerns,"
Kansas African Studies Center, Teacher Summer Institute, June 2005

"African Art does not sit still,"
University of Kansas, Intro to African Studies Course, Spring 2005

"Arts of Cross River,"
Washburn University, Topeka, KS; October 2004

“We All Came from Akpa: Cultural Diversity in Cross River State, Nigeria,”
University of Wisconsin at Plattville, 3 March 1999.

“Talking Revolution: Mexican Muralism and the Shaft-Tomb Cultures of West Mexico,”
University of Iowa Art Museum, 6 February 1999.

“Hat upon Hat: Power of Tradition among the Yakurr of Southeastern Nigeria,”
University of Iowa, International Center, 28 September 1998.

Teaching Experience

University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Department of Art History and African & African American Studies
Assistant Professor (tenure track), Summer 2005 to present;
Assistant Professor, acting (tenure track), 2004/05

University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois
Department of Art History; Adjunct Instructor,Spring 2004

DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
Department of Art and Art History;
Visiting Instructor, Fall 2003 to Spring 2004
Adjunct Instructor, Fall 2002 to Spring 2003

Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas
Department of Art History; Visiting Instructor, Spring 2001

University of Iowa
Department of Art and Art History; Graduate Student Teaching Assistant, Fall 1997 to Fall 2000; Summer 2001

Language Skills

German: native language
English: fluent
French: reading advanced: speaking intermediate
Lokaa: beginning

Memberships

CAA - College Art Association
ASA - African Studies Association
ACASA - Arts Council of the African Studies Association

Employment History

University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Department of Art History and African & African American Studies
Assistant Professor (tenure track), Summer 2005 to present
Assistant Professor, acting (tenure track), 2004/05

University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois
Department of Art History
Adjunct Instructor,Spring 2004

DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
Department of Art and Art History
Visiting Instructor, Fall 2003 to Spring 2004
Adjunct Instructor, Fall 2002 to Spring 2003
DePaul University Museum Faculty Consultant for Exhibition: Renée Stout: A Mid-life Retrospective, Fall 2003

Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
Department of Art History
Visiting Instructor, Spring 2001

University of Iowa
Department of Art and Art History
Graduate Student Teaching Assistant, Fall 1997 to Fall 2000; Summer 2001
Assistant Curator, Office of Visual Materials, Summer 2000
Research Assistant to Professor Christopher Roy, CD-Rom project: Art and Life in Africa,
Fall 1997 to Spring 1998

University of California, San Francisco
Campus Library
Senior Library Bookmender, February, 1989 to July 1997

University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Docent, Exhibition: An Eternity of Forest, Mbuti Women’s Barkcloth Painting,
October to November, 1996  

Flax Artist's Materials, San Francisco
Purchasing Agent, May 1987 to January, 1989

California State University, Fresno
Henry Madden Library, Book Conservatory
Student Assistant, February 1985 to July 1986

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