Faculty Close-Up
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Dr. Suzanne MacAulay |
Suzanne P. MacAulay is an art historian and folklorist. She is Professor and Chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Before arriving at the University, she was recruited to develop a culturally oriented art history program for New Zealand’s Quay School of the Arts at the Wanganui Polytechnic Institute (now UCOL) and, subsequently became Head. Her book Stitching Rites critiques the role of cultural politics in arts and crafts revitalization projects in the Southwest (Honorable Mention, American Folklore Society). She is consulting producer of the film inspired by San Luis Valley artist Josephine Lobato, The Gifts the Mountain Kept. The film addresses the cultural legacy of the Valley including land rights issues and water rights. A recent article, “Pictorial Narratives of San Luis, Colorado: Legacy, Place and Politics,” was published as the lead chapter in the first book on ethnicity in Colorado. MacAulay is writing a monograph on the artistic life of Josephine Lobato as well as a book on diaspora, memory, culture, and identity politics inspired by New Zealand expatriate narratives. The initial stage of this narrative study received an Australian Sesquicentennial Gift trust Award. Different research interests include material culture (Hispanic and South Pacific textiles), ethno aesthetics, performance theory and personal narratives, memory, diaspora, globalization and class, as well as the scholarship of teaching and learning.
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Dr. Elissa Auther |
| Elissa Auther is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and Adjunct Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver. Her book, String, Felt, Thread and the Hierarchy of Art and Craft (University of Minnesota Press, 2010), examines the innovative use of fiber in American art and the impact of its elevation on the conceptual boundaries distinguishing "art" from "craft" in the post-war era. Her latest publication, West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977 (University of Minnesota Press, 2012), is co-edited with Adam Lerner and focuses on the diverse visual and performative expressions of the American counterculture. Auther has also written about and published on, among other topics, the criticism of Clement Greenberg, the history of the decorative, artist-produced wallpapers, and the film installations of Isaac Julien. She is the co-editor of the April 2007 special issue on feminist activist art for the National Women's Studies Association Journal. Her scholarly work has been supported by major research grants from the J. Paul Getty Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and Research Center, among others. In 2009 she was awarded the University of Colorado's President's Diversity Award for a multi-year series of lectures and workshops for undergraduate students that highlighted the work of underrepresented minorities in the areas of contemporary experimental music, visual art, performance, and curatorial practices. This project was co-organized with her colleague in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Valerie Brodar. In addition, she co-directs "Feminism & Co.: Art, Sex, Politics," a public program at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver designed to explore feminist issues in popular culture, social policy, and art through creative forms of pedagogy. |
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