Dr. Cherise Smith
 
 
 

PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY & AFRICAN AND AFRICAN DIASPORA STUDIES

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Dr. Cherise Smith is a professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Art History at The University of Texas at Austin, specializing in American art after 1945, especially as it intersects with the politics of identity, race, and gender. She is founding Executive Director of the Art Galleries at Black Studies, which consist of the Christian-Green Gallery and IdeaLab. Cherise previously directed the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies and co-directed the Op-Ed Project. From 2021 to 2022 she was the inaugural Scholar of the Getty Research Institute’s African American Art History Initiative. Her award-winning recent book, Michael Ray Charles: A Retrospective (University of Texas Press, 2020), surveys Charles’ career, exploring the artist’s “sampling” approach to provocative anti-black stereotypes, as well as his analysis of African American masculinity and sports culture.

Above Credit: Lauren HillaryBelow Credit: UT Press

Above Credit: Lauren Hillary

Below Credit: UT Press

“scholarship reveals the complexity of his engagement with images and symbols of antiblack racism and helps readers gain a greater appreciation of [Charles’] controversial body of work as it relates to a range of art historical, social, and political contexts.”

Leslie Shipley, caareviews.org

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