A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

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Romi N Crawford

Professor

Contact

Bio

Romi Crawford, Ph.D., Professor, Visual and Critical Studies and Liberal Arts departments. Her research and courses explore areas of race and ethnicity as they relate to American visual culture (including art, film, and photography). She is co-author of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017). Additional publications include “Do For Self: The AACM and the Chicago Style” in Support Networks (University of Chicago Press, 2014); “Ebony and Jet on Our Mind” in Speaking of People (The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2014); and Theaster Gates Black Archive (with Thomas D. Trummer and Hamza Walker), published by Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2017. She was co-curator of the 2017 Open Engagement conference in Chicago and founding the Museum of Vernacular Arts and Knowledge (MOVAK), a project based platform for art making that is out of sync with museum and gallery values. She was previously Curator and Director of the Education Department at the Studio Museum in Harlem. She received a B.A. from Oberlin College and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

In the last few decades there have been concerted efforts, on the part of historians and theorists, to analyze how the concept of race bears on the production of American art. Only recently has serious attention been given to analyzing the significance of race, as a discursive field of knowledge, to the production of American film. In the course we will investigate how the intersection of race and film, during a particularly salient period in American (film) history (1910-1937), works towards the production of a 'race film' industry. The course explores 'race films' as a genre-a genre used to describe independent filmmaking from within the African-American and Jewish communities respectively during the early part of the 20th century. The course also forces the historical relation of African-American and Jewish 'race films' to each other, as well as their relation to the mainstream filmmaking industry of the period. There will be regular screenings of 'race films' from both the Jewish and African-American traditions; an ongoing examination of audience, and a critical engagement of concepts such as 'race' and ethnicity.

Class Number

2228

Credits

3

Description

In the last few decades there have been concerted efforts, on the part of historians and theorists, to analyze how the concept of race bears on the production of American art. Only recently has serious attention been given to analyzing the significance of race, as a discursive field of knowledge, to the production of American film. In the course we will investigate how the intersection of race and film, during a particularly salient period in American (film) history (1910-1937), works towards the production of a 'race film' industry. The course explores 'race films' as a genre-a genre used to describe independent filmmaking from within the African-American and Jewish communities respectively during the early part of the 20th century. The course also forces the historical relation of African-American and Jewish 'race films' to each other, as well as their relation to the mainstream filmmaking industry of the period. There will be regular screenings of 'race films' from both the Jewish and African-American traditions; an ongoing examination of audience, and a critical engagement of concepts such as 'race' and ethnicity.

Class Number

2229

Credits

3

Description

The thesis, as the final requirement to be fulfilled for the Masters of Art degree in Visual and Critical Studies, is expected to constitute an original contribution to the current body of research in its field. For the thesis, students are encouraged to use innovative approaches to research and analysis, and the formats with which they disseminate the outcomes of their research. The thesis requirement may be satisfied in a variety of ways incorporating visual, sonic, and verbal media. This seminar assists the student in selecting, researching, analyzing, designing, and, organizing the thesis. During this semester, the student selects her or his thesis advisor and two other faculty committee members and defends the proposal before this panel. The student also completes most of the research and the preliminary work for the thesis. This seminar is required for the Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies. Open to MAVCS students only.

Class Number

1038

Credits

3