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Judith Huacuja

Professor

Full-Time Faculty

College of Arts and Sciences: Art and Design

Contact

Email: Judith Huacuja
Phone: 937-229-3238
FH

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Art History, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2000
  • M.A., Art History, Rice University, 1995
  • B.A., Art History, University of Houston, 1993
  • BFA, Fine Arts, University of Houston, 1993

Profile

Judith L. Huacuja is a Chicana scholar who researches and teaches across the disciplines of ethnic studies, women's studies and visual culture. She brings expertise in Latin American and African American contemporary art history as well as a secondary emphasis in non-Western art history. Dr. Huacuja's recent research explores the cultural histories in African American as well as Latin American art of the Midwest. Her research and teaching methods analyze aesthetics and philosophies in relation to minority issues of resistance, activism and integration. 

Dr. Huacuja's research grants include the College Art Association Cummings Fellowship, the Smithsonian Institution's Post-Doctoral Fellowship, the Chicana Studies Dissertation Fellowship (UCSB), a UC MEXUS Dissertation Research Grant, several Ohio Humanities Council grants and an Ohio Arts Council grant. 

Dr. Huacuja has undertaken numerous curatorial projects including "Three Generations of Chicana Art," "Latino Art of the Midwest," and "Sera," featuring artists whose work references Hispanic, Latino and Chicano social issues. Recent curatorial projects on African American artists include "Masks, Music, and Musings: A Retrospective Exhibition and Symposium on the Art of Curtis Barnes Sr." and "Marking the Past/Shaping the Present: The Art of Willis Bing Davis."

Faculty perspective

"Committed to the principle that intercultural understanding must be based upon a combination of personal experience, critical inquiry, and comparative knowledge, I offer courses that examine the cultural, political, and gendered aspects of multi-ethnic artistic production. A major objective is to provide students access to diverse cultural traditions and to stimulate thoughtful discussion about the power of art to represent identity, to critique social conditions, and to motivate various audiences. My hope is to interest students in conducting cross-cultural research and to provide them with the conceptual tools to engage with the visual arts. Especially I want to encourage art and design students to consider their art as engendering multiple and nuanced discourses for varied audiences."

Courses taught

  • Activism in the Arts of the Twentieth Century
  • Art History and Methodologies
  • Chicano and Latin American Art History
  • Contemporary Art Histories 1945-present
  • Feminism and the Arts
  • Introduction to the Visual Arts
  • Survey of Art History III: 19th and 20th Centuries

Research interests

  • Chicano and Latino art history
  • African American art history
  • Feminist and cultural activism in the arts

Selected presentations

"Dialoguistas Performing Paradox," National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Conference, San Jose, Calif., 2010.

"Culturales Acequias: Latino Water Culture and Activism," International Conference on Water and Water Rights, U of Minnesota, Women's Caucus for the Arts, 2010.

"Using the Arts as a Vehicle for Conversation About Race, Gender and Class," National Conference on Race & Ethnicity, San Diego, 2009.

"Signs of Place & Spirit: Chicana Art, Spiritual Practice and Community Connection," Texas A&M University, Kingsville Texas, 2008.

"Postcolonialism: Chicano Critical Art Pedagogies," College Art Association 92nd Annual Conference, Seattle, 2004.

"Art, Spiritual Practice, and the Humanization of Alambristas: Towards a Latino Border Theology," National Assoc of Ethnic Studies 'Borderlands' Conference, Arizona State U, Tempe, Ariz., 2003.

"Chicana Art & Pedagogy," National Association for Chicano-Chicana Studies Annual Conference, Los Angeles, 2003.

Selected publications

Marking the Past/Shaping the Present: The Art of Willis Bing Davis, exhibition catalogue, University of Dayton Press, 2011. 

Masks, Music, and Musings: A Retrospective Exhibition on the Art of Curtis Barnes Sr., exhibition catalogue, University of Dayton Press, 2008. 

"Borderlands Critical Subjectivity in Recent Chicana Art," Frontiers: Journal of Women's Studies, University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

"Yolanda Lopez, Print Media Artist," St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists: Profiles of Latino and Latin American Artists, St. James Press, 2002.

"Amalia Mesa-Bains, Multi-media Installation Artist," St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists: Profiles of Latino and Latin American Artists, St. James Press, 2002.