Posted by vrcvanderbilt on Wednesday, June 5, 2019 in HART, News, Vanderbilt University, VRC.

Rebecca VanDiver, assistant professor of African American art, has been named one of ten Nancy Weiss Malkiel Scholars for 2019 through the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The Malkiel Scholars Award, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is given to junior faculty whose research focuses on American history, politics, culture, and society, and who are committed to the creation of an inclusive campus community for underrepresented students and scholars.

Each Malkiel Scholar receives a twelve-month award that seeks to free the time of junior faculty on their way to tenure—including those from underrepresented groups and others committed to eradicating disparities in their fields—so that they can both engage in and build support for systems, networks, and affinity groups that make their fields and campuses more inclusive.

VanDiver is in the early stages of research for her second book manuscript on twentieth-century African American art that addresses the notion of impermanence. Her working title is States of Emergency: Politics of Ephemerality in African-American Art Practices, 1965–2015.

“In this new project, I will examine the ways in which African American artists working during the past 50 years have engaged with ideas of ephemerality, producing temporary materials like prints and posters as well as larger-scale projects, like site-specific community murals,” VanDiver said. “An example of that would be the Wall of Respect that existed on Chicago’s South Side from 1967 to 1981.”