Faculty & Staff

Full Time Faculty

Contact Info: Dept. of Art & Art History Tufts University 11 Talbot Avenue Medford, MA 02155 Ph: 617-627-2939 Email Prof. Probst

Peter Probst
Professor of Art History and Visual Culture
Adjunct Professor of Anthropology

Interests and Specialization
African art, globalization, heritage and memory, material religion, history of (African) art history

Education:
Ph.D., Free University Berlin, 1990
M.Phil. Cambridge University, 1984
M.A. Free University Berlin, 1983

CV:
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Scholarship and Research
Trained in anthropology yet working in an art history department, I enjoy occupying a space in between the two fields and thus being able to profit from both. My own field of expertise is African art – from so-called classical and traditional to modern and contemporary. Correspondingly, I have carried out fieldwork on masked performances in Cameroon and Malawi just as I lived in Nigeria, where I worked on issues of heritage and modern art.

In terms of scholarship my current research addresses three topics and questions: 1.  images and the work of heritage, i.e. where do images of heritage come from and what is their role in the realm of cultural production? 2. aura and effect, i.e. what can we say about the aesthetics of media and how does the study of media alter the understanding of religious art?  3. figures of difference, i.e.  how did the academic study of African art evolve from the 19^th century to the present and what are the differences in relation to other fields of so-called Non-Western art?

Selected Books and Edited Volumes

• 2011. Osogbo and the Art of Heritage. Monuments, Deities, and Money. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press
• 2009. Hybrid Heritage (guest editor together with Ferdinand De Jong). African Arts, Vol. 42, No. 4
• 2007. Visual Publics (guest editor)  Critical Interventions. Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture, Vol 1, No. 2
• 2005. Kalumbas Fest. Lokalität, Geschichte und Rituelle Praxis in Malawi. Berlin: Lit
• 2002. African Modernities (co-edited with J.G. Deutsch and H. Schmitt). Oxford: James Currey

Selected Articles

• 2011. Revisiting Osogbo – Religion, Media, and Control in a Nigerian Heritage Site. Critical Interventions. Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture, Vol. 7, 65-83.
• 2010. Roundtable Contemporary African Art History and the Scholarship. NKA. Journal of Contemporary African Art. No. 24, pp. 80-151.
• 2009. Yoruba Heritage as Project. Reauthenticating the Osun Grove in Osogbo, Nigeria. African Arts, Vol. 42/4, pp. 24-37.
• 2008.The Modernity of Heritage. In: Vincent Houben & Mona Schrempf (eds.) Figurations of Modernity. Global and Local Representations in Comparative Perspectives. Frankfurt: Campus, pp. 155-178.
• 2007. An African Journey. Cultural Heritage and the Popularity of Primitivism. RES, Journal of Anthropology and Comparative Aesthetics, Vol. 52, pp. 153-161.
• 2006. Weltkulturerbe als Exportschlager. Lettre International, No. 74, pp. 124-125.
• 2005. Medien, Grenzen, Öffentlichkeit. Für ein relationales Verständnis des Lokalen. In R. Loimeier et al. (eds.) Globalisierung und Lokales Handeln.    Münster: Lit Verlag, pp. 175-208.
• 2004. Keeping the Goddess Alive: Performing Culture and Remembering the Past in Osogbo, Nigeria. Social Analysis, Vol. 48, pp. 32-54.
• 2003. Differenz und Schaulust. Zur Sexualisierung des Sehens bei Twins Seven Seven, Rotimi Fani Kayodé und Yinka Shonibare. In: K. Schaefer (ed.) Sexualität und Tod. Afrikanische Kunst und AIDS . Köln: Kunst Verlag, pp. 26-38.
• 2002. Expansion and Enclosure. Ritual Landscapes and the Politics of Space in Central Malawi. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 28, pp. 178-196.
• 2001. Traumwerk, Bildwerk, Kunstwerk: Visualität und ästhetische Praxis in Osogbo, Nigeria. In B. Schnepel (ed.) 100 Jahre Traumforschung: Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Köln: Köppe Verlag, pp. 178-197.
• 2000. Picture Dance. Reflections on Nyau Image and Experience. Iwalewa Forum, Vol. 3/1, pp. 17-32
• 1997. Danser le Sida: Nyau Performances et Chewa Culture Populaire dans le Centre du Malawi. In A. Ricard & M. Agier (eds.) Les Arts de la Rue dans les Sociétés du Sud, Autrepart (Cahiers des Sciences Humaines, Nouvelle Série);  Vol. 1/1, pp. 91-112
• 1994. Omais Erben: Polynesische Variationen über die Ästhetik des Lokalen im Globalen. Historische Anthropologie, Vol. 2/1, pp. 87-106.
• 1989. The Letter and the Spirit. Literacy and Religious Authority in the History of the Aladura Movement in Western Nigeria. Africa, 59/4, pp. 477-495.