Courtnay G M Micots
- courtnay.micots@famu.edu
- PHONE
- 850-561-2844
- OFFICE
- Visual Arts
Foster-Tanner Fine Arts, West, Room 104
Monday/Wednesday • 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Tuesdays • 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
ARH 2000 Art Appreciation • M/W/F — 10:10 - 11:00am
ARH 2000 Art Appreciation • M/W/F — 11:15am - 12:05pm
ARH 2050 Survey of Art History I • M/W/F — 1:25 - 2:15pm
ARH 4520 African Art History • T/Th — 12:30 - 1:45pm
I am an art historian who has conducted research in Ghana, the Republic of Benin,
Egypt, Cuba, England and South Africa, and have also traveled to Burkina Faso, Togo
and Zimbabwe. My research projects and publications focus on cross-cultural issues
and visual studies within Africa and the Black Diaspora from the Modern period to
present-day, examining assimilation and resistance in the colonial and postcolonial
eras as well as connections to heritage and modernity as a means to establish identity.
My publications have analyzed African colonial architecture, Akan leadership chairs,
Fante asafo flags, Fancy Dress Carnival in southern Ghana, and carnival arts in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
I received my second National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) award in December
2023 to support my next book "African Mansions: How the Gold Coast Elites Fought Colonialism
with Status and Modernity." Formally, I won the NEH Award for my book Kakaamatobe:
Fancy Dress Carnival in Ghana in 2019. The book was published in 2021. In total, I
have published one book, 16 peer-reviewed articles/essays and four book reviews, curated
four exhibitions, and given 22 presentations nationally and internationally since
obtaining my PhD.
I spearheaded and manage the Fine Arts Collection of African and Diaspora Art, comprised
of 156 objects of African art. In late 2017, I curated two exhibitions “Fancy Dress
Masquerade” at Gallery 1957 in Accra, Ghana, from August 10-September 2, and “A Single
Bracelet Does Not Jingle: Recent Donations of African Art to the Visual Arts Collection”
in FAMU’s Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery from October 10-December 8. I curated the
fall 2019 exhibition, “Perceptions: Encounters with African Art” in the FAMU Architecture
Gallery, which combined artwork from the collection with student work in the Visual
Arts program studio courses.
In 2022, I was appointed to the Steering Committee of the Working Group on Best Practices
in Collaboration, Collecting, and Restitution for North American Museums Holding African
Objects: an ad hoc committee of the Arts Council of African Studies Association (ACASA).
With more than 18 years of curatorial experience with museums and collections in the
United States and abroad, my goal is to bring my research to life in gallery and other
public spaces.
- African Art history
- University of Florida •
Ph.D. in African Art History - Cleveland State University •
M.A. in Art History and History - Georgia State University •
B.A. in Art History
- Associate Professor • 2022 - Present
Florida A&M University (FAMU), Tallahassee, FL - Assistant Professor • 2015-2022
Florida A&M University (FAMU), Tallahassee, FL - Andrew W. Mellon Post-doctoral Fellowship •
Wits Art Museum, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
"Perceptions: Encounters with African Art." FAMU Architecture Gallery, Tallahassee,
FL, October 7 - November 8, 2019
“A Single Bracelet Does Not Jingle: Recent Donations of African Art to the Visual
Arts Collection.” FAMU Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery, Tallahassee, FL, October 10
– December 8, 2017
“Fancy Dress Masquerade.” Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana, August 10 – September 2, 2017
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“A Palace to Rival British Rule: The Amonoo Residence in Ghana.” Critical Interventions 11, no. 2 (2017): 132-154.PDF
“Joburg Carnival and the Potential for Social Cohesion and Therapeutic Activism.” South African Journal of Art History 32, no. 1 (2017): 89-109.PDF
“Kente Cloth.” Smarthistory. (2017) Website
Review of Paul Schauert, Staging Ghana: Artistry and Nationalism in State Dance Ensembles for African Studies Quarterly 17, no. 1 (March 2017): 148-149.PDF
"Age of Elegance: An Italianate Sobrado on the Gold Coast." African Studies Quarterly 16, no. 1 (December 2015): 39-71.PDF
“Status and Mimicry: African Colonial Period Architecture in Coastal Ghana.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 74, no. 1 (March 2015): 42-63. PDF
“Carnival in Ghana: Fancy Dress Street Parades and Competition.” African Arts 47, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 30-41.PDF 1 PDF 2
“Fancy Dress: African Masquerade in Coastal Ghana” In Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion online, Berg Fashion Library, ed. Joanne Eicher and Doran Ross. Africa volume, November 2012.PDF
“Masquefest 2012.” In Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion online, Berg Fashion Library, ed. Joanne Eicher and Doran Ross. Africa volume, November 2012.PDF
“Performing Ferocity: Fancy Dress, Asafo and Red Indians in Ghana.” African Arts 45, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 24-35.PDF
“Griffins, Crocodiles and the British Ensign: Kweku Kakanu's Asafo Flags and Followers.” In Africa Interweave, ed. Susan Cooksey, 142-145. Gainesville: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, 2011.PDF
Review of Charles Gore, Art, Performance and Ritual in Benin City, for Africa, Journal of the International African Institute 81, no. 3 (August 2011): 512-514.PDF
- NEH Award for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 2023
- NEH Award for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 2019
- Faculty Travel Award, Florida A & M University, Summer 2017
- Triennial Symposium Travel Award, Arts Council of the African Studies Association
(ACASA), 2014
- Two Teaching and Learning Grants, Center for Advanced Teaching and Learning, Elon
University, 2013
- Center for African Studies Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS), Summer
Intensive
- Language Study, University of Florida/University of Cape Coast (Ghana), 2009
- Graduate Teaching Assistantship, University of Florida, 2006-2010
- Dr. Linton E. Grinter Fellowship, University of Florida, 2006-2009
Lower-Level Undergraduate
- ARH 2000 Art Appreciation
- ARH 2050 Introduction to Art History: Rise and Fall of Empires
- ARH 2051 Introduction to Art History: Cathedrals to Conquest
- ARH 2052 Introduction to Art History: Revolt, Reform, Reinvention
Upper-Level Undergraduate
- ARH 3610 American Art
- ARH 4520 African Art History (Survey, Methodology/Perceptions, Carnival, Egypt)
- ARH 4633 African-American Art
- ARH 4410 Global Modern Art History: Colonialism and Resistance Modern Art
- ARH 4475 Global Contemporary Art History: Resistance in the Postmodern Era
