Bio
As a scholar, I tend to pick a project and stick to it for a long time. I have been thinking, researching, and writing about public monuments and slave past since 2010. Over time as a scholar and writer, I have discovered that I enjoy writing for a public audience. My writing tends towards the essay format and exhibition catalog essays although I have written two monographs: Keith Morrison, volume 5 of The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art (Pomegranate Books, 2005); Remaking Race and History: The Sculpture of Meta Warrick Fuller (University of California Press, 2011; 2021 paperback).
At heart, I am an educator and discovered the energy of the classroom in 1996 when I served as a teaching assistant for Professor Josephine Wither's brilliant "Introduction to Art" survey course. I have loved my long career as a college professor, teaching art history to several generations through the practice of seeing, analysis, and interpretation. With content ranging from U.S. colonial portraits to Mende sowëi helmet masks, my approach was to place the object at the center of our discussions and then to weave history, analysis, and interpretations together. For me, scholarship, writing, and teaching are inextricably linked.
In November 2025, I wrapped up the Providence Commemorative Works inventory project for the City of Providence and the Rhode Island Historical Society. I learned a lot about the monument landscape of the city, spent the summer outside, and wrote a report of my findings. Currently, I am finalizing an archive of the third iteration of Contemporary Monuments to the Past. Please visit the digital repository as it has been reorganized, navigation tools updated, and content added.
I am an Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland where I taught from 2000-2017. Recently, I made the decision to end my tenure, with a little trepidation but certainty, at Brown University (2020-2025). My five years in the Department of Africana Studies at Brown were wonderful and fulfilling: my colleagues were generous, and I met many smart and wonderful students in my courses
February 14, 2026.