Welcome Dr. Mora Beauchamp-Byrd!
We are excited to welcome Dr. Mora Beauchamp-Byrd to Florida State University this fall as Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies. An art historian, arts administrator, and curator, she specializes in the art and visual culture of the African Diaspora; Art of the Americas, with a focus on Modern & Contemporary African American art and Caribbean art; British art, including appropriations of the 18th-century graphic narratives of William Hogarth, and The Black Arts Movement in Britain during the 1980s and 90s; Global modern & contemporary art; Museum & Curatorial studies; and representations of race, class and gender in American comics, with an emphasis on animation and African American newspaper comics during the Golden Age of Comics (1938-1955).
I am truly excited about joining my new colleagues here in the Department of Art History at FSU! I am also thrilled about opportunities for developing collaborative projects with our amazing students in Art History and in MCHS, with the FSU Museum of Fine Arts, The Ringling Museum, College of Fine Art faculty members from departments such as Art, Art Education, The School of Dance, The School of Theatre, and departments and programs across campus as we chart new possibilities for Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies. This is such a supportive environment for my research as well, and I am enthusiastically preparing courses that focus on global histories and theories of curatorial practice; on histories of American comics (including animation, newspaper comic strips, and graphic novels); and recent critical approaches to the study of modern and contemporary African American art.
In recent years, Dr. Beauchamp-Byrd has taught courses such as Art of the United States; Art of the African Diaspora; Art Since 1960; The Black Atlantic; Black Popular Culture (Race and Gender in American Comics); Contemporary Art; History of American Comics; History of Graphic Design; Intro to Africana Studies; Intro. to Global Art; Intro to Museum and Curatorial Studies; Mining the Museum; Modern Art; Modern and Contemporary African American Art; Museum Practicum I, II and III; and 20th Century Art.
Dr. Beauchamp-Byrd has organized numerous exhibitions including Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996 (presented at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Caribbean Cultural Center, and The Studio Museum in Harlem); When I Am Not Here/Estoy Alla: Photographs by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons; Struggle and Serenity: The Visionary Art of Elizabeth Catlett; Transcending Silence: The Life and Poetic Legacy of Audre Lorde; Petrona Morrison and Veronica Ryan: Sculptural Works; The Worldview of Katherine Dunham; Picturing Creole New Orleans: The Photographs of Arthur P. Bedou ; and Little Nemo’s Progress: Animation and Contemporary Art.
Currently, she is completing a manuscript focused on the early to mid-twentieth-century portraiture of the New Orleans-born photographer Arthur P. Bedou (1882-1966).
Since 2020, Dr. Beauchamp-Byrd has been a member of the Board of Directors of the College Art Association (CAA), where she served on the Executive Committee as Vice President for Publications from 2021-2023. Since 2021, she has also served as an Exhibition Reviews Co-Editor at Panorama, Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art.
