Elaine Sullivan

Elaine Sullivan is a PhD candidate in the department of world arts and cultures/dance at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her dissertation addresses the contemporary arts on display in the renovated Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, asking what work the contemporary artworks are being asked to do. Combining methods from art history, museum studies, and ethnography, she broadly considers the reception of contemporary Congolese arts in Europe and the experiences of Congolese artists moving between the two continents. Elaine has taught courses on traditional and contemporary African arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and at UCLA. She has also worked on exhibitions of African arts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her research has been funded by UCLA, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Belgian American Educational Foundation, among others. She is currently conducting research on contemporary arts in the DRC thanks to the Arnold Rubin Award from the Fowler Museum at UCLA.