Enid Schildkrout

RESEARCH

Dr. Schildkrout's research focuses on the changing cultures of West Africa, in particular Ghana and Nigeria. She also studies certain issues more widely in Africa-ethnicity, interpretation of material culture and African art, ecotourism and its influence on African societies-drawing heavily on museum collections and fieldwork throughout the African continent.

Dr. Schildkrout is currently conducting research among Ghanaians living in New York City, studying how new African ethnicities are created and transformed in the United States. She has worked with a group of children in New York to see how they learn to understand issues of self-identity and community. Dr. Schildkrout is focusing on the Ghanaians in New York City who come from the city of Kumasi, where she did fieldwork in the 1960s. These immigrants-Muslims from many ethnic groups-coalesce into a community in New York, which defines its ethnicity based on the members' common adherence to Islam and, distinctively, their origin from a particular community within a particular town in Ghana. Dr. Schildkrout is interested in how ethnicities are redefined and constructed in new contexts and how these identities assist people in creating opportunities along a chain of transnational migration.

Dr. Schildkrout also has an ongoing project with Research Associate Dr. Dale Rosengarten on the historical linkages and cultural congruities of African and African American basket making traditions. She has traveled to Senegal several times to conduct fieldwork for this project.

RECENT SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS

Schildkrout, E. "L'art Mangbetu: L'invention d'une tradition." In Du Musée colonial au musée des cultures du monde, ed. D. Taffin, 109-125. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2000.

Schildkrout, E. "Gender and Sexuality in Mangbetu Art." In Unpacking Culture: Art and Commodity in Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds, ed. R. Phillips and C. B. Steiner, 197-213. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Schildkrout, E. "Royal Treasury, Historic House, or Just a Museum? Transforming Manhyia Palace, Ghana, into a Site of Cultural Tourism." Museum Anthropology, Journal of the Council for Museum Anthropology 22, no. 3 (1999): 14-28.

Schildkrout, E. "Personal Styles and Disciplinary Paradigms: Frederick Starr and Herbert Lang in the Congo." In The Scramble for Art in Central Africa, ed. E. Schildkrout and C. Keim, 169-192. London: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Schildkrout, E., and C. Keim. "Objects and Agendas: Re-Collecting the Congo." In The Scramble for Art in Central Africa, ed. E. Schildkrout and C. Keim, 1-36. London: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Schildkrout, E., and C. Keim, eds. The Scramble for Art in Central Africa. London: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Schildkrout, E. "Politics and Poetry: Mohammed Rashid Shaaban's 'History of Kumasi.'" In The Cloth of Many Colored Silks: Papers on Ghanaian and Islamic History and Society in Honor of Ivor Wilks, ed. J. Hunwick and N. Wilks, 367-391. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1997.

Schildkrout, E., and C. Keim. African Reflections: Art from Northeastern Zaire. New York and Seattle: AMNH and University of Washington Press, 1990.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Arts Council of the African Studies Association (Board of Directors)
• American Anthropological Association (Past Board Member)
• Council for Museum Anthropology (Part President and Past Journal Editor)
• African Studies Association
• The Royal Anthropological Institute (Fellow)

EDITORIAL AND ADJUNCT APPOINTMENTS

• Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University
• Adjunct Professor, Department of Art History, Columbia University
• Adjunct Professor, Graduate Center, CUNY
• Editorial Advisory Board, Childhood Studies, Rutgers University Press
• Editorial Board, Journal of Childhood Studies
• Advisory Board, Margaret Mead Film Festival
• Advisory Editor, Encyclopedia of National Cultures, Yale University
• Editorial Board, Curator: The Museum Journal

OTHER PROFESSIONAL HONORS

• Arnold Rubin Triennial Award of Best African Art Book for African Reflections
• "Choice" Award of Outstanding Academic Book of 1991 for African Reflections

GRADUATE STUDENTS AND SCIENTIFIC ASSISTANTS

• Karen Milbourne, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Iowa
• Carol McGee, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Naomi Goodman, Collections Assistant