Michelle Huntingford Craig

Art History Alumni


EDUCATION
PhD 2011 – University of California Los Angeles, Department of ArtHistory, Degree in Art History
MA 2005 – University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Art History, Degree in Art History
BA 2001 – University of Connecticut, Department of Art and Art History and Department of Anthropology, Degree in Art History and Anthropology, magna cum laude

DISSERTATION
[In]Secure Space: The Mellah of Fez, Morocco. Committee: Steven D. Nelson (chair),
Irene Bierman-McKinney, George Baker, Dominic Thomas.

MASTER’S PAPER
Bori’s Assertive Creativity: The Artistry of a Hausa Possession Cult. Committee: Henry Drewal (chair), Jill Casid.

AREAS OF RESEARCH
Arts and Architecture of Africa and African Diaspora
Islamic Arts and Architecture

EMPLOYMENT
2016 – Lead Art History Faculty, Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo
Art Appreciation (Ground and Distance Education)
Museum Studies
Art History: Prehistory to Gothic
Survey of Mexican Art History I
Survey of Mexican Art History II
Survey of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous North America
Art Gallery
2016 Art History Instructor¬, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
Arts of Traditional Africa
2015-2016 Lecturer, Department of Art History, University of California, Los Angeles
Art Historical Theories and Methodologies,
African Architecture and Urbanism (trans-Saharan focus)
2015-2016 Art History Instructor, Santa Monica College
Introduction to Art History: Pre-History-Gothic,
Introduction to African Art History
2014-2015 National Endowment for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow, Getty Research
Institute
2013-2014 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Art Department, The City College of New York
(CCNY), Themes African Art,African Art and Methods
2011-2013 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Visual Arts, Eastern Connecticut State University
Introduction to Art History: Pre-History-1600, Explorations in Visual Culture, Islamic Art

SELECTED HONORS AND AWARDS
2016-2018 Committee Member, Rhonda A. Saad Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Modern and Contemporary Arab Art, Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey (AMCA)
2014-2015 National Endowment for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow, Getty Research
Institute, Los Angeles
2014-2017 Reviews Editor. International Journal of Islamic Architecture.
2013-2014 Assistant Editor. International Journal of Islamic Architecture.
2012 AAUP Faculty Development Grant, Eastern Connecticut State University,
Willimantic

SELECTED PUBLISHING
Forthcoming “Manuscripts, Faith, and Trade across the Medieval Sahara” (Book Chapter) in The World in a Book: Manuscripts and the Global Middle Ages. Bryan C. Keene, ed. (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute)

“Imaging the Desert: Photography and the Sahara” (Book Chapter) in Visualizing Empire: Africa, France, and the Politics of Representation. Steven D. Nelson, Rebecca Peabody, Dominic Thomas, eds. (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute)

2017 “Community Building: Synagogue Architecture and Spatiality in Late
Nineteenth-Century Fez” (Book Chapter) in The Architecture of Synagogues in the Islamic World. Mohammad Gharipour, ed. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press)

2016 Book Review of Porto-Novo: Patrimoine et Développement, Christine Mengin et Alain Godonou, eds. for Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 75:1.

2015 Book Review of From a Nation Torn: Decolonizing Art and Representation in
France (1945-1962), by Hannah Feldman for African Arts, vol. 48, no. 4, 93-94.

2015 “No Place for a Tourist: Imagining Fez in the Burton Holmes Travelogue” (Book chapter) in The City in the Muslim World: Depictions by Western Travel Writers. Mohammad Gharipour and Nilay Ozlu, eds. (New York: Routledge).

2013 “Constructing Colonial Africa.” Book Review of Colonial Architecture and Urbanism in Africa: Intertwined and Contested Histories, Fassil Demissie, ed. for The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 46.

2006 “Senegalese Modernisms.” Book Review of In Senghor’s Shadow: Art, Politics, and the Avant-Garde in Senegal, 1960-1995, by Elizabeth Harney for Art Journal 65 (4), 119-121.

CURATORIAL PROJECT
2005 About Face: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the African-American Image, Milwaukee Art
Museum. Michelle H. Craig, Dr. Glenn Adamson, Dr. John Prown, co-curators. (July 1, 2005- November 27, 2005)

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
2018 Moved by the Ancestors: Processions and Festivals in the Mellah of Fez, Morocco,
‘Honoring Ancestors in Africa: Arts and Actions’ African Studies Program Symposium, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

2018 Across Desert Sands: Trans-Saharan Visual Culture and Exchange, ‘Intersection: The Visual Cultures of Islamic Cosmopolitanism’, Dallas Museum of Art and University of Texas, Dallas, Texas

2017 Not a Mirage: Connectivity, Photographs, and the Sahara Desert, Arts Council of the
African Studies Association 17th Triennial Conference, Accra, Ghana

2017 Heritage Lost and Found: Recent Cultural Preservation Initiatives and Installations in
Fez, Morocco. College Art Association Conference, New York

2015 Roundtable Chair. Arts, Architecture, and the Representation of the African State. African Studies Association Annual Conference, San Diego, California

2015 Across Desert Sands: Trans-Saharan Visual Culture, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

2015 Redefining the Mellah of Fez in the Twenty-First Century. Society of Architectural
Historians 2015 Annual Conference, Chicago

2015 Synagogues of the Fez Mellah: Constructing Sacred Spaces in 19th Century Morocco.
College Art Association Conference. New York

2014 Roundtable Panelist. Ruins at the Dawn of the Protectorate: Colonial Imaging of the Mellah of Fez, Morocco in Rethinking Violence, Reconstruction and Reconciliation, African Studies Association Annual Conference. Indianapolis, Indiana

2014 Photographs of Home: Omar Chennafi’s “Invisible Fes.” Arts Council of the African Studies Association Triennial Conference, New York

2012 Beyond the Facades of the Fez Mellah in Early Protectorate Morocco. Public lecture. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

2009 [In]secure Space: The Mellah of Fez, Morocco. College Art Association Conference, Los Angeles

2008 Fez Bound: Burton Holmes’ Travelogue on Morocco. The City of Fez in World History: An Interdisciplinary Conference in Commemoration of the 1200th Anniversary of the Founding of the City of Fez, Morocco. Al-Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco

2006 A Cropped Shot: The Representation of A Moroccan History in A Postcard. TRANS Visual Culture Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI

SERVICE
2017- Fine Arts Representative, Academic Senate, Cuesta College
2016- Advisor, Art History Club, Cuesta College
2016-17 Committee Member, Rhonda A. Saad Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Modern and Contemporary Arab Art, Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey (AMCA)
2013 Mentor, Arts & Science Research Conference and Exhibition, Eastern
Connecticut State University
2012-2013 Eastern Connecticut State University Speakers Bureau
2011-2013 Faculty Advisor, Visual Arts Club, Eastern Connecticut State University

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
African Studies Association
Arts Council of the African Studies Association
College Art Association
Society of Architectural Historians

RESEARCH LANGUAGES
Arabic
French

Atop the burj of the Fez Mellah
Contact Information
Emailmichelle_craig1@cuesta.edu
Phone805 863-1110