Rachel Malcolm-Woods (James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia)

Submitted:  Mon, 30 Dec 2002 00:11:14 -0400



Rachel Malcolm-Woods, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Art of Africa, Africa America, and the Diaspora
Department of Art and Art History
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, Virginia  22802   USA

e-mail: malcolrx2jmu.edu



Ph.D. Dissertation: "A Child of Its Time: Bangwa Influences in the Work of
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner."

My field of interest is the African influences in the New World. I use three
academic disciplines to teach art of the African Diaspora; art history,
history, and anthropology.  Religion is an inherent component of all three
disciplines.  When teaching and learning about African art these disciplines
have to be used to reach an appropriate cultural context.  Westerners
understand their own cultural elements through personal experience.  
However, when learning about another culture we have to educate the student
in all facets of these elements to understand the art.  One of the joys of
teaching non-Western art history is to help students learn how to step out
of their own cultural box and develop an open mind and critical eye.  This
happens when they begin to see the cultural transcendence of African symbols
through the arts of the African Diaspora.  Eventually students develop a
global awareness and acceptance of other lifestyles including within their
own culture.  When this happens they begin to use their newly acquired
skills to examine facets of their own culture and art.  As an educator this
is a very exciting event to observe, because once this happens very few
students return to the old cloistered venues of Western ideology.

Education:

May 1999        M.A., Art History, Department of Art and Art History, 
                University of Missouri-Kansas City, Thesis: John Walker: The 
                Dialectic of Opposites.
December 1996	B.F.A., Painting, Kansas City Art Institute.


PUBLICATIONS 

2002   "Kirchner and the Bangwa Queen," Transatlantic Studies
Conference, Dundee University and Baylor University, Dundee, Scotland,
July 2002.

2002   "A Child of Its Time: Bangwa Influences in the Work 
of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner", 2nd Annual Harvard Conference on 
International History, Spring 2002

2001   "Imagination and Vision", International Voice, Spring 2001, 
University of Missouri-Kansas City

2000   Web Site: Rachel Malcolm-Woods Interdisciplinary Scholar, 
Ethnographic Research in Cote d'Ivoire: "Visiting the Baule, Senufo and Dan 
Cultures" (http://www.umkc.edu/is/mts/woods/) and 10 videos of Divinations and 
Dances.

2000   Cover and four paintings with a narrative, in Number One: Literary 
Journal for UMKC. University of Missouri Press, Kansas City.
	
2000   Book Cover: House of Bishops.  A chronology of the Episcopal Bishops 
of the Diocese of West Missouri.

1998-  Artist’s Statement, Five Paintings and Curriculum Vitae, in
Leonardo Arts and Sciences Journal: Virtual Africa
(http:// www.cyberworkers.com/Leonardo/Africa/ponts/woods 


1998   "The Leedy-Volkus Summer Show", in Forum Magazine, Kansas 
City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, Missouri (June issue)