Allen F. Roberts
Professor
Department:
World Arts & Cultures/DanceKaufman Hall Suite 150
Address2: P.O. Box 951310
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Campus Mail Code: 160806
Phone: 310-206-6312
Fax: 310-206-2250
Email:
aroberts@arts.ucla.eduWebsiteKeywords: Middle East, Africa, Near East, Art, Sociology, Humanities
Allen Roberts, formerly the Director of the African Studies center, is an anthropologist specializing in the arts and humanities of francophone sub-Saharan Africa and the African disaporas. His research concerns political economy, technology transfer, social change; divination, healing, magic, myth, ritual performance; popular culture, visualities; and ethnicity and urban identity. He co-founded an African national museums project at the University of Michigan while he was a research scientist at the Center for Afro-American and African Studies (1978-88) and a project for the advanced study of art and life in Africa at the University of Iowa while he was professor of anthropology and African-American world studies (1988-99) and director of the African studies program. He curates museum exhibitions accompanied by books, such as "The Rising of a New Moon" (1985) and "Animals in African Art" (1995); and with his spouse, Dr. Mary Nooter Roberts (UCLA Fowler Museum), "Memory: Luba Art and the making of History" (1996), and "A Sense of Wonder" (1997). Their current research will lead to a Fowler exhibition and book in 2001 called "Sénégalese Sufi Arts on the Move." M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago; B.A., Amherst College. Please visit the online exhibit: Passport to Paradise: Visualizing Islam in West Africa and the Mouride Diapora