Women Power: Pioneering architect Zeynep Fadillioglu

Me speaking about 18th century prints in Barbados

This month I had the privilege of spending 10 days researching in Barbados: looking at colonial imagery at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society and also exploring the island as a site of ancestral memory. Whilst I was there I gave a lecture on African presences in 18th century print culture at Colleton Hall.

Colleton is poignant. It is a former plantation site which still has the remains of enslaved quarters, and was the former residence of Sir John Colleton - the man said to be one of the fathers of American slavery in the Carolinas. The House also contains the Rickwood Art Collection, which includes historical artworks specifically representing African subjects AND a gallery of traditional African and Oceanic art.

So this was a deeply relevant setting to be discussing my work.

The talk was called Presence and Place: Images of Africans in 18th century British Print Culture

You can watch and listen to an audiovisual version of the talk here:


Presence & Place - A Lecture given by Dr Temi Odumosu at Colleton House, Barbados from Dr Temi Odumosu on Vimeo.

Speaking about the "Black body" in Paris (Audio links)

From 17th - 20th January, I participated in a glorious gathering of international scholars, educators and creative practitioners who came together at the conference Black Portraiture[s]: The Black Body in the West for a critical opportunity to reflect, revisit and reframe. The conference premise was described as follows:

"Paris, an internationally key and highly influential Western space in all things concerning the arts and modernity, is the perfect stage for Black Portraiture[s]: The Black Body in the West, the fifth in the series of conferences organized by Harvard University and NYU since 2004. Black Portraiture[s] explores the ideas of the production and skill of self-representation, desire, and the exchange of the gaze from the 19th century to the present day in fashion, film, art, and the archives. 

How are these images, both positive and negative, exposed to define, replicate, and transform the black body? Why and how does the black body become a purchasable global marketplace and what are its legacies? Also importantly, what are the responses and implications? How can performing blackness be liberatingforperformerandaudience? Cantheblackbodybede-racializedto emphasize cultural groupings encouraging appropriation and varied performers across racial lines? 

How the black body has been imagined in the West has always been a rich site for global examination and contestation. The representation and depiction of black peoples often has been governed by prevailing attitudes about race and sexuality. The conference draws on the ideas and works of leading and emerging writers, photographers, scholars, artists, curators and filmmakers of our time and includes a broader discussion of Africa in the popular imagination. It is also significant that this project revolves around collaboration."

The full programme can be DOWNLOADED HERE.

I spoke on Saturday 19th at the Musée du Quai Branly on a panel entitled: "Intricate Intersections: Black apparitions in imperial Europe". Here I gave a short presentation exploring the role and presence of Black characters in Georgian caricature.

You can LISTEN HERE to the whole panel discussion, which includes my presentation, on this dedicated page on the Museum website. (Scroll down to the 1st session under the heading: Écouter les interventions du colloque - Cinéma"

Revising history: my Cruikshank essay in a new volume "Slaves in European Art"

A new volume of essays called The Slave in European Art: from Renaissance Trophy to abolitionist Emblem (2012) has been published by the Warburg Institute - edited by Professors Elizabeth McGrath and Jean Michel Massing - and includes my research essay revising the history and interpretation of this print by George Cruikshank, called The New Union Club (1819).

In a nutshell, the print is a satirical representation of an actual meeting of a philanthropic group called the African and Asiatic Society, which took place in 1816. The meeting was chaired by William Wilberforce and included a number of prominent abolitionists, as well as two African American guests, and representatives from London's poor African and Asian community.

Alongside well known and documented Black street personalities from London's urban life (such as Billy Waters and Charles McGee), the print also represents two free African American freemasons - Prince Saunders and Thomas Paul - who attended the meeting as representatives for King Henri Christophe of Haiti. Christophe was at the time realising his vision for the first free Black republic.

My research laid to rest some myths about this complex image. Firstly I was able find archival evidence for the dinner represented, which actually took place in 1816 - three years before this print was made. In doing so I could more clearly delineate the intentions for the meeting and find out rare evidence pertaining to the philanthropic society who held the event.

Secondly having found the correct citations for the event, I solved the riddle of the man represented at the centre of the scene, who has so often been referred to as the English Black radical Robert Wedderburn. This man is in fact Thomas Paul, an African American Baptist preacher from Boston  who was also a freemason.

Thirdly, by treating the image as a historical text, I was able to decipher all but one of the written references in the print - which can be seen in speech bubbles, labels, open books, and random pieces of paper.

This was certainly a huge scholarly feat, which clearly demonstrated just how much is often overlooked in historical sources, particularly when the evidence is presented is such an irreverent way. Ultimately, however, what I have found here is some very serious comedy.

Ethnic Notions: A seminal film exploring the history of Black stereotypes in popular culture

What to do with that PhD when academia doesn't work out

Doctoral research is a fascinating journey, and one that offers a complexly rich opportunity for personal and professional growth. But for those of us who didn't necessarily dream of becoming a university professor; or who are interested in using what we have learnt in 'the fold' in other places; or who simply can't find academic jobs; where do we go? How do we make ourselves professionally relevant outside of the academe? Who might be our guides and mentors?....A recent article by Professor Leonard Cassuto in The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses these and more questions. READ HERE:

"...It's a simple irony, really: The more withered the academic job market becomes, the stronger the job candidates who emerge from it. And this year's market is bursting with recession-related backlog.."

Alexander Crummell: an early black student at Cambridge University