Ruth Phillips
Canadian art historian and curator (born 1945)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ruth B. Phillips (born 1945) is a Canadian art historian and curator who specializes in North American aboriginal art. She is an author of numerous books and articles on the subjects of Indigenous studies, anthropology/archaeology, political science, international studies, public policy, Canadian studies, and cultural studies.
Ruth B. Phillips | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1945 (age 80–81) |
| Known for | art historian and curator |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | SOAS University of London |
| Thesis | The Sande Society Masks of the Mende of Sierra Leone (1979) |
Career
Phillips received her doctorate in African art history in 1979 from the University of London at the School of Oriental and African Studies.[1] Her dissertation focused on masquerade performance by Mende women in Sierra Leone.[2] She became a professor at Carleton University in 1979.[1] In 1997, Phillips became a Director of the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, where she, alongside three First Nations partner communities and museum staff, created a successful expansion and renewal plan for a $41 million grant to the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the British Columbia Knowledge Foundation, and the University of British Columbia.[1]
In 2005, Phillips, Heidi Bohaker, First Nations partners, and many other scholars co-founded the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts & Cultures (GRASAC).[3] Phillips organized many grants, and supervised the team of GRASAC research assistants in her time as the director.[3] Phillips holds the Canada Research Chair in Modern Culture at Carleton University.[4]
Publications
- Berlo, Janet Catherine; Phillips, Ruth B. (1998). Native North American Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-284266-8. (with a second edition in 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-284218-3)
- Phillips, Ruth B. (1995). Representing Woman: Sande Society Masks of the Mende of Sierra Leone. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. ISBN 9780930741440. OCLC 32921792.
- Phillips, Ruth B. (1998). Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700–1900. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0773518061.
- Phillips, Ruth B.; Steiner, Christopher B., eds. (1999). Unpacking Culture: Arts and Commodities in Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520207963.
- Edwards, Elizabeth; Gosden, Chris; Phillips, Ruth B., eds. (2006). Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture. Berg. ISBN 9781845203245.
- Phillips, Ruth B. (2011). Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums. McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation Studies in Art History. Vol. 7. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 9780773539051.
- Coombes, Annie E.; Phillips, Ruth B., eds. (2015). Museum Transformations. The International Handbooks of Museum Studies. Vol. 4. Wiley Blackwell.
- Coombes, Annie E.; Phillips, Ruth B., eds. (2020). Museum Transformations: Decolonization and Democratization. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-119-64204-6.