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Amanda Carlson

Amanda Carlson headshot

Associate Professor of Art History

Art History, History and Philosophy

Hartford Art School
860.768.4342 V 223C
Education

PhD, Art History, Indiana University

PhD Certificate, African Studies, Indiana University

MA, Art History, Indiana University

BA, Art History, University of Maryland

Certificate, Women’s Studies, University of Maryland

Amanda Carlson teaches art history from a global perspective and is a specialist in the art of Africa. Committed to engaged learning inside and outside the classroom, Carlson has taken students to Nigeria and Ghana and participates in the University of Hartford study abroad program, Art & Environment: The Sustainable Studio in Ghana.

Carlson also has developed original online courses that include a teaching practicum for advanced graduate students, focused on pedagogy specific to teaching about African art online. Having conducted research in many parts of Africa and beyond, Carlson has published on topics related to contemporary art, photography, indigenous writing systems, masquerades, and women’s ritual performances. She is a major contributing author and co-editor of Africa in Florida: Five Years of African Presence in the Sunshine State (University Press of Florida, 2014), which received the Florida Book Award (gold medal, visual arts category).

Carlson has conducted extensive research on the arts of the Cross River region in southeastern Nigeria, which will be the topic of her next book. Numerous national foundations have funded her research and writing, including the American Association for University Women, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, and Fulbright.

Works

  • "Conversation and Illustration with Victor Ekpuk:  Guided by Nsibidi," in African Graphics, Signs and Cultures: The Artistic Universe of Victor Ekpuk. Toyin Falola, ed. Carolina Academic Press. Forthcoming.
  • Africa in Florida: 500 Years of Black Presence in the Sunshine State. Amanda Carlson and Robin Poynor, eds. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2014. (Florida Book Award, Gold Medal, Visual Arts Category).
  • "Calabar Carnival: A Trinidadian Tradition Returns to Africa," African Arts 43.4 (2010): 14-31.
  • “Nsibidi: Old and New Scripts,” in Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art. National Museum for African Art, 2007. Pp. 146-153.
  • Lalla Essaydi. Converging Territories. NY: Power House Books, 2005.
  • University of Hartford Engaged Learning Fellow (ELF) 2015
  • University of Hartford Cardin Research Award 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2009, 2007, 2006
  • University of Hartford Women’s Education and Leadership Grant 2013
  • University of Hartford International Center Grant 2013, 2005, 2004
  • Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant 2012
  • Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Travel Grant 2012
  • University of Hartford Coffin Grant 2011
  • American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Fellowship 2007-2008
  • University of Hartford Greenburg Junior Faculty Research Award 2006-07