Exhibition:The Sentimental Archive: Remembering Nubia through Salvage Anthropology
2023-12-02 08:00 - 23:00 (America/Detroit) | Hatcher Graduate Library - Gallery, 1st Floor
This exhibit showcases select photographs from The American University in Cairo’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library taken by the renowned Egyptian photographer Abd al-Fattah Eid as well as by the Cairo-born Swiss artist Margo Veillon.

In 1964, the construction of the Aswan High Dam displaced Nubians from their ancestral villages along the banks of the Nile in Egypt. In the years immediately preceding the dam’s construction, the American University in Cairo directed a large-scale project of salvage anthropology with funding from the Ford Foundation.

This endeavor yielded hundreds of photographs of al-nuba al-qadima or “Old Nubia” the term affectionately used by community members. Over the past sixty years, Nubians have used these images to cultivate a collective memory of a lost homeland. From Aswan to Alexandria and beyond, community members are salvaging their own stories from this anthropological archive, reshaping it as a sentimental terrain of solidarity across time, space, and circumstance.

This selection of photographs includes persons, places, and practices as well as glimpses of the presence of the photographer and researchers. Both online and offline, Egyptian Nubians continue to share and re-mediate these photos as they recall their historical displacement and revitalize their heritage for future generations.

The exhibit is curated by Yasmin Moll, assistant professor of anthropology, and coordinated by Nesrien Hamid, doctoral student in anthropology, with funding from the University of Michigan's Humanities Collaboratory.

For a deeper dive, visit the companion exhibit, Narrating Nubia, at the Duderstadt Center on North Campus. It delves into the archaeological, anthropological, and community narratives of both ancient and modern-day Nubia spanning Egypt and Sudan.

Workshop / Seminar:Curating Scholarship: A Workshop on the Visual Presentation of Research
2023-12-02 09:00 - 16:00 | 202 S. Thayer - Institute for the Humanities Osterman Common Room, #1022
Visual exhibitions of research have the potential to engage publics beyond the readers of a scholarly monograph. Moving research off the page can take a variety of forms, but always requires careful curation. In this two-day workshop, graduate student and faculty scholars will gain an understanding of the requirements of curation, of the relationship between curation and creation, and of the research potentials opened through collaboration.

Curating Scholarship will be led by Institute for the Humanities Curator Amanda Krugliak, who will address conceptual questions of importance such as visual choices, context, display, and organizational styles. Logistical factors to be covered include planning, strategies, collaborative possibilities, and generating interest and support. Guest presenters will discuss their experience translating research and into exhibition format.

After the workshop, each participant will have the opportunity to meet with the curator for a 30-minute one-on-one session to discuss the exhibition potential of their own work.

Eligibility

Currently enrolled PhD students that have reached candidacy level as of September 1, 2023.
Faculty with an active appointment on any U-M campus as of September 1, 2023. Faculty are defined as tenure track and tenured professors, lecturers, and post-doctoral/research fellows.
Each selected participant will receive $250 in compensation for their time in attending the workshop.

Facilitator and Presenter:
Amanda Krugliak, Artist, Institute for the Humanities Curator, and Arts Administrator whose practice includes performance and conceptual experiential installations.

Presenters TBA

Application and email of endorsement are due Wednesday, October 18, 2023.

Selection Criteria:

Promise, significance, and interdisciplinary scope of the research project
The humanities and arts content of the project
The project’s potential contribution to public humanities scholarship
The quality, significance, and breadth of the applicant’s prior work

To apply, visit https://myumi.ch/qGnwX.

Exhibition:Illustrating the Renaissance Book: From Illumination to Woodcut
2023-12-02 09:00 - 20:00 | Hatcher Graduate Library - Hatcher Gallery Exhibit Room, 1st Floor
Enjoy a selection of manuscripts and early printed books from the 15th to the 17th centuries that were illustrated with illuminations and woodcuts. Throughout the European Renaissance (1300-1700), many book illustrations were exclusively ornamental, while others focused on enhancing the meaning of the text. However, as the pages on display attest, all these illustrations share a common ground: they reveal the aesthetic and intellectual fashions first proposed by Italian artists of the 1400s, who were strongly committed to the recovery of the past of classical antiquity.

The word “Illumination,” from the Latin illuminare, “to enlighten or to illuminate,” refers to the embellishment of a manuscript or early printed book with luminous colors, notably gold and silver. This illumination was prominent in the frontispiece, or first page of text, which included the decoration of its borders and initial letter, and even miniatures, that is, scenes with an independent narrative. With the introduction of movable-type printing in 1454, these illuminations would be gradually replaced by woodcuts, which were printed from a woodblock that had been cut by knife along the grain of the wood.

Available during Hatcher Gallery Exhibit Room hours (https://myumi.ch/2m7d4).

Join us on September 13 for a talk by Pablo Alvarez, curator of the exhibit.
