My hope for this page is that it provides students and instructors of all kinds with resources to construct decolonized syllabi, whether physically or maybe even just mentally. The lists I have created below are in no way comprehensive and, despite being published online, this page should be viewed as an open bibliography, a living document if you will. You may even notice the implicit biases in my curation from the subjects and geographic regions I've privileged, despite aiming to provide materials for others to form decolonized syllabi. It is for this reason, among many others that I will be updating this page as I discover new resources and other materials. Learning, after all, is a life-long endeavor and so no reading list is a complete list, but is rather a starting point. I implore you, dear reader, to read widely and to read within and beyond the limits of your discipline; theory is everywhere! More importantly though, I suggest unassertively though entreatingly, to acquaint yourself with the uncomfortable and be alright with sitting in it. Take a moment to feel your discomfort, ask it questions, and learn from it. We can then, from this position of discomfort begin to mold a new improved reality of our current context. Why be comfortable and complacent when we can be uncomfortable and ever learning?
Before moving on, I'd like to also take a moment to acknowledge the fact that students, and viewers more generally, will experience the following resources in different ways. Being a primarily white institution (PWI), most classrooms (physical or otherwise) at The College of New Jersey are populated with white faces, and in turn, white feelings. White students, myself included, have the privilege of learning about traumatic histories and (though not separate) colonial heritages without feeling the burden of grief or guilt. We get to learn about traumatic histories without seeing ourselves as the “bad guys” or feeling the ramifications of what we are learning whereas Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, and other students/scholars of color do not have this same privilege. The goal of this acknowledgment is to ask instructors and students plainly to make space for counter-narratives and more importantly to listen - hard stop. There is compassion and fellowship is listening, truly listening, not just the silent pauses we often take while waiting to speak again.
What follows below, are working lists of reference materials that have helped to inform my own research and thinking and/or have prompted me to think differently about how I've been trying to answer (art) historical dilemmas. Over the past few years I've found myself turning back to several of these sources time and time again and hope that these materials will be as helpful and thought provoking for you or your students as they have been for me.
Read articles by scholars and thinkers from around the world. This is a great blog to explore new ideas and to think deeply about current events and topics that, at first glance, appear to be mundane.
This blog was started by visual arts scholars for visual arts scholars/students. Dive into the minds of academics and read about current art historical issues and debates.
This blog, though geared mainly towards Classical Studies, is an excellent resource to learn more about white supremacy's place in academia and higher education. Among the many though-provoking posts and articles are additional reading lists and sources for further exploration.
Books:
Anderson, Carol. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 9781632864130.
This book provides greater context for thinking about the construction of distinctly American ideas on race. Although not directly art historical, this source could be employed in any course focused on race and institutional racism or read by any reader interested in the aforementioned.
Betancourt, Roland. Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender and Race in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020.
Betancourt's book takes a completely new approach to writing about Byzantium. His historical model offers both widely-recognized and little known historical figures and events nuanced analysis that reveal and explore the intersectionality of Byzantine life.
Blundell, Sue. Women in Ancient Greece. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Blundell's book, though written several decades ago, is still a foundational text for teaching or learning about women's lives in Classical history. This books is best utilized when taught or read alongside more recent texts.
Brown, Rebecca M., and Deborah S. Hutton. Asian Art. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
This edited volume is a historiographic breakthrough in that it is one of very few books dedicated to surveying Asian Art History. Many of the articles contain ideas, methods, and theories that are relevant across disciplines and research interests. I find myself continuously drawn back to this volume.
This is one of the most widely used textbooks in Art History and Gender courses. Though popular and excellently written, one drawback of Chadwick's work is that very few pages or illustrations represent the works or experiences of women of color. This book is most effectively used when taught or read alongside the works of artists and writers of color.
D’Alleva, Anne. Methods & Theories of Art History. Second. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2012.
D'Alleva's book is candidly and thoughtfully written. Each chapter provides definitions and examples of a different Art Historical theory and its respective methodological practices. D'Alleva also offers writing and research strategies for Art History students to reference while writing their papers. This book is great for both newcomers to the field and experienced scholars, in fact I wish it had been introduced to me earlier in my undergraduate career.
D’Ambra, Eve. Roman Women. Cambridge Introduction to Roman Civilization. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
This book is another source that I find myself turning back to frequently in my own research. D'Ambra presents Roman womanhood in a way that reanimates the emotions and voices of women from republic to empire. D'Ambra's work is an excellent tool that Art Historians can and should use in effort to color the ancient world and to place human experience back into historical writings.
Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. New York: Vintage Books, 2013.
I think about this book all the time! Although I haven't yet cited it in any of my research projects, Jasanoff's alternative presentation of America's Revolutionary War has greatly shaped the way I think about history and how history is told. I furthermore felt I needed to list book simply because of how well-written it is. Jasanoff beautifully and implicitly teaches readers to analyze history with the understanding that texts, works of art, and events can, and often are, multivalent - having multiple meanings or applications.
Matias, Cheryl E. Feeling White: Whiteness, Emotionality, and Education. Vol. 2. Cultural Pluralism Democracy, Socio-Environmental Justice & Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2016.
Matias's monograph is a particularly useful though admittedly challenging text to grapple with. Using anonymous student responses and anecdotes Matias discusses institutional racism and white supremacy in higher education and how this affects teacher candidates and their future students in turn. Although reading this book may cause discomfort, I urge readers to continue on, to listen, and reflect. Books, even those read in the comfort of our own homes, are not necessarily safe places. Be okay with being uncomfortable. Matias' insight and the methodology she employs are worth reading and expanding on.
Trouillot, Michel-Roulph. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Tantor Media Inc, 2015.
Since reading this book, Trouillot has made bibliographic appearances in nearly every research project of mine. Trouillot's writings on histories and voices that have been "silenced" and "unsilenced" forced me, as a young undergraduate at the time, to reexamine the ways that I had previously been taught history. You may even notice these terms in the above or following short summaries. Trouillot's scholarly insights have greatly contributed to my own growth as a young academic and is a good starting place for new undergraduates to begin their academic careers.
Waxman, Sharon. Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World. New York: Times Books, 2008.
Waxman's book reads more like an unfathomable adventure story than it does a historical text, which is one of the reasons why I've selected it for this list. Since the world's major museums frequently disengage from discussions pertaining to repatriation, looting, and colonial pasts (maybe even presents), students and instructors are forced to turn to scholars working on, though outside museum walls to explicate these long-standing issues and debates. Waxman provides greater context for recent museum controversies by stitching together the historical narratives of an object's theft with its current display space.
Dr. Sarah Bond addresses the online criticism and cyberbullying she received after posting an article on polychromy and the whitewashed ancient world on her column in Forbes.
Essayist, Margaret Talbot writes about polychromy on classical sculpture and architecture and how white supremacists' came to adopt classical works of art as logos and symbols for their lineal descent back to ancient Greece and Rome.
Dr. Tim Whitmarsh explores how ancient Greeks understood race and ethnicity in response to criticisms over the casting of David Ghasi, a Black actor, to play the mythical Achilles in the Netflix's miniseries Troy: Fall of a City, 2018.
Podcasts:
*Note* I've listed below particular episodes to listen for some podcasts and not others. I did this primarily for podcasts that have multiple seasons or a lot of episodes in order to spotlight some of my favorites or episodes that I found to be the most relevant and thought-provoking. Podcasts that do not have spotlighted episodes are in all likelihood limited series'. I encourage you, however, to explore the contents of these resources regardless of my selections and to listen widely!
Nikole Hannah-Jones sets to audio the history of the North Atlantic Slave Trade, North American chattel slavery, and how slavery and race continues to define all aspects of life in the United States.
Host, Megan Scarborough, explores Native American tribal histories in New Jersey and raises questions about a controversial mural currently tucked away in The College of New Jersey's "Old Library".
Guy Raz and Manoush Zomorodi stitch together personal interviews with TED speakers and thematically delve deeper into the hard and pressing questions in technology, entertainment, and design.
Hosts Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah dig deeper into colonial histories, Zombie fascinations, mass incarceration, the history of the Banana, and more.
A platform for museum workers of all positions and levels to anonymously share their experiences of institutional racism and elitism in museums and cultural institutions.
A collective of Black and Brown employees committed to bringing attention to the role that museums and other cultural institutions play in perpetuating systemic racism.
Artist Titus Kaphar explores how artists and authors of history determine our understandings of the past. In a live demonstration, Kaphar quite literally reframes our view.