Elaine Sullivan

Elaine Sullivan

Ph.D. in Culture and Performance

Elaine is a PhD candidate focusing on the contemporary arts of central Africa. Her MA thesis addressed the Lubumbashi Biennial and theories of mapping, and her PhD comprehensive exams covered topics related to traditional Luba and Kanyok arts of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Due to violence in the Kasai region Elaine had to refocus her dissertation research, and is now writing about the contemporary arts on display in the newly renovated AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, Belgium (also known as the Royal Museum for Central Africa). In addition to her graduate research Elaine has worked at the Yale University Art Gallery, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She was a Smithsonian History of Art Fellow at the National Museum of African Art in 2014 and a recipient of the Belgian American Educational Foundation fellowship for 2015-2016.

Research Interests

Art history, visual studies, anthropology, ethnography, Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium, colonial memory, museum studies.