Education
Bachelor of Arts. The University of Texas at Austin (1983). Major: Molecular Biology. Minor: Biochemistry.
Doctor of Philosophy. Department of Anthropology (1996). Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Symbolic Anthropology.
Honors, Fellowships and Grants
Visiting Research Fellow. National Museum of African Art. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D. C. April 1 – June 30, 2008.
Royal Anthropological Institute, London. April 1 – April 30, 2008
Zora Neale Hurston Fellow. Rockefeller doctoral advancement grant. Institute for the Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities. Program for African Studies. Northwestern University. 1993-94.
Social Science Research Council. International Doctoral Research Fellowship. 1990.
Fulbright Award. USIS/IIE. Doctoral research grant. 1990.
Graduate College Foreign Language Area Study Fellowships, Pre-dissertation Research and Travel Awards. Center for African Studies and School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1985-86, 88-90.
National Biological Honors Society. 1981-82.
Select Ongoing Research Projects
Documenting Popular Culture. This study of popular culture and pluralism in Indonesia began in late 2005. It involves long term embedded ethnographic research and the creation of a collection of mass media materials related to the controversy over the pornography bill and the banning of Playboy Indonesia.
From Bloodstains to Brancusi: A History of Zimbabwean Modernism. The project dating back to 1986 has involved field and archival research in the following institutions: the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwean National Archives, the Mus√(c)e Rodin in Paris, The British Museum and the Tate National Gallery in London, the Ashmolean Museum and Rhodes House at Oxford, The National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian in Washington, The Museum of Modern Art, the Rockefeller Archive Center and the Ford Foundation in New York, as well as on the Ruskin materials at The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
Asian Interactions. Museum and field research which includes documenting sacred royal cloths imported from India as depicted in Hindu-Buddhist stone sculptures at the National Museum of Indonesia while studying the survival and revival of these designs in contemporary textile industries in Java and West Sumatra.
Memorial and the Tsunami Museum in Banda Aceh. As an honorary curator with Tikar Pandan, an Acehenese arts and culture non-governmental organization, this research project involves studying the politics of memorial construction and civil society engagement, or lack thereof, in the case of the construction of the 7.5 million dollar museum.
Teaching Experience
Universitas Islam Bekasi ‘45 (UNISMAS). Colonialism and Orientalism in Modern British Art and Literature. 2006.
Monash College, Jakarta. Media Studies, Globalization and Academic Writing. 2006.
The International Graduate School Program in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia (PAU-FEUI). Academic Writing, Research and Presentation Skills. Guiding masters thesis research and writing in association with the Free University of Amsterdam and the Australian National University. 2006.
Instructor. Shona Language and Culture. Department of Linguistics. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2000-2.
Assistant Instructor. African Film. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. With Dr. Mahir Saul. 1998.
Instructor. Rhetoric 105. Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1998.
Visiting Lecturer. African Art and Culture, an undergraduate seminar working on the African collection. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University. Normal, Illinois. 1995.
Academic and Educational Projects
Integrated art and science workshops for kindergarten and primary schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. 2006-2009.
Academic research and writing workshops for Indonesian students going abroad for graduate studies. The University of Indonesia, Bank Indonesia and the Ministry of Finance 2006-2007.
Fahmina. Editor and advisor for academic enhancement of publications relating to gender and Islam. 2006-2007.
Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Creating bilateral research and teaching facilities. 2006.
The Asia Foundation’s Gender and Women’s Participation in Indonesia. Consultant. Providing report and program evaluation, analysis and editorial services concerning the promotion of women’s rights, civil society initiatives, gender-sensitive budget planning and the prevention of human trafficking. 2005-2006.
Growth through Investment, Agriculture and Trade (GIAT/USAID), now the Legislative Support Project (LSP). Grant writer and report editor for Indonesian economic advisors supporting committees in the Indonesian Parliament in order to assist in the passage of legislation concerning economic and parliamentary reform while simultaneously training P3I research staff (the parliamentary research unit) in report writing. 2005.
Jaringan Liberal Islam (The Liberal Islam Network). Editor. 2003-2005.
Art and Science: Bridging Schools and Museums. Program design and creative collaboration with teachers at Leal Primary School in the Urbana School District, the Program for Art Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Krannert Art Museum. Integrated study of biology, art and culture using dance and performance as educational vehicles. 1998.
Power and Beauty: A Learning Module on African Art and Culture. A ten year traveling exhibit with active learning teaching units supplemented with high quality materials designed to stimulate creative active learning. Circulated through Champaign-Urbana middle and high schools and the Department of Curricular Development at Illinois State University, Bloomington-Normal. Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in conjunction with Milner Library and the Department of Anthropology at Illinois State University. 1996-2006.
African Arts and Cultures: Of Lions, Rabbits and Mbiras, Bobo Masquerades, Parallel Worlds and In the Shadow of the Sacred Grove. (1998). Four educational videos produced as a collaboration between the Program for Art Education and the Educational Assistance Technologies Group with faculty in the Departments of Anthropology, Ethnomusicology and English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Bobo Masquerades was given an award by the Society for Visual Anthropology at the 98th Annual American Anthropological Association Meetings in Chicago, Illinois in 1999.
Training undergraduates to conduct research with The Africa Collection at Illinois State University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology in 1995. Discussion on teaching about authenticity including the curriculum and examples of student work included in “Using the African Collection at Illinois State University as a Resource for Teaching and Research.” The Africa Collection. CD-ROM. Eds. Steve Meckstroth, Linda Giles, Scott Larson and Allan Richards. (1998). Normal, Illinois. Instructional Technology Services. 1995/1998.
The Arts and Humanities in African Economy and Political Transitions: A Dissertation Development Workshop. Center for African Studies. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1998.