Peri Klemm

Peri Klemm’s courses for the African Studies Minor address the rich artistic traditions of Africa.  Her published materials focus on identity, dress, and the body in Oromia. At the CSUN Art Galleries, she has co-curated with her exhibition design students ‘African Arts in the Lifecycle’, and ‘Bareedina: Women of Oromia.’ A book on the historical and contemporary body art practices of Oromo women in Ethiopia and Kenya is forthcoming. In 2015, Peri M. Klemm received a fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create African art history content for Smarthistory at Khan Academy.  She spent the summer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Newark Museum, the Smithsonian, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology recording audio conversations around 50 works of art from Africa.  The completed videos will be free and available in several languages to learners around the world.

Education

Ph.D. 2003, Emory University, African Art History

M.A. 1997, Emory University, Ancient American Art History

B.A. 1993, University of California, San Diego, Art History and Criticism, specialization in Non-Western Art

1991-2. University of Ghana.  African Studies Program.

Course taught related to African studies

ART 112 World Arts: Africa, Oceania, the Americas

ART 404  History of the Arts of Africa and Oceania

Select Publications

• 2013. “We Grew Up Free but Here We Have to Cover our Faces.  Veiling among Oromo Refugees in Eastleigh, Kenya.  In Veiling in Africa.  Pp. 186-204. Edited by Elisha Renne.  Indiana University Press.
•  2012. “Oromo Fashion” In A Cultural Perspective of Dress. Ed. Hazel Jackson. San Diego: Cognella Academic Publishing.
• 2011.  “Dress in Djibouti and Eritrea” and “Dress in Ethiopia.”  Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. Edited by Joanne Eicher. Oxford: Berg Publishers.
• 2010.  “Tying Oromo History: The Manipulation of Dress during the Late Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Oromo Studies 17(1):111-135.
• 2009.   Entries: “Hairstyles,” “Body Ornamentation: Scarification/Tattooing” and “Carca.” Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Edited by Siegbert Uhlig. Hamburg University, Harrassowitz Verlag.
• 2009.  “Oromo Fashion: Three Contemporary Body Art Practices among Afran Qallo Women.”  African Arts 42(1): 54-63.  Guest Editor with L. Niederstadt Special Issue on Expressive Culture in Ethiopia.
• 2007.  “Africa: The Arts.” World Book Encyclopedia.  World Book Publishing.
• 2007.  “Leather Amulets in Ethiopia” In Faith and Transformation: Votive Offerings and Amulets from the Alexander Girard Collection.  Edited by Doris Francis. Pp. 98-100.  Girard Collection, Museum of International Folk Art, Museum of New Mexico Press.
• 1998. Odyssey Web Site.  Teacher Resource Site for African Art. https://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/AFRICA/ahomepg.html. A project of the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Exhibitions

• 2014.  Curator.  Exhibit: San Simon: Manifestations of a Guatemalan Folk Saint. Art Department Main Gallery, CSUN.  October 25-December 13.
• 2011-12.  Curator.  Exhibit: Bareedina: Women of Oromia.  West Gallery, CSUN Art Galleries.  April 22-May 13.  International Oromo Women’s Conference, Frankfurt, Germany, July 18-25.  University of Minnesota, July 20-24.  Augsburg College, February 24-27, 2012.
• 2005.  Contributor. “Ethiopian Crossroads: Photographs of a Land and Its People.”  UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.  March 6 – June 12.
• 2005.  Curator.  Exhibit: African Art in the Life Cycle.  Art Department Main Gallery, CSUN.  January 31-April 9.
• 2002.  Curator. San Diego Museum for African Art. 

Recent Presentations

• 2014. November. “Arts and Urbanization in Ethiopia.” The Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Indianapolis.
• 2013. August. Panel Chair. Liberating Voices: Historical and Contemporary Forms of Women’s Empowerment.  The Annual Conference of the Oromo Studies Association, Howard University.
• 2012. February.  “Women of Oromia. Countering Popular Representations of Ethiopia.” Understanding Africa Series, University of Michigan.
• 2012.  February.  “Bareedina/Beauty and Siqqee/Solidarity.” Augsburg College, Minneapolis.
• 2011.  July.  “Images of Oromia.” The Annual Conference of the Oromo Studies Association, University of Minnesota.
• 2010.  November. “Oromo Dress and Nationalism.” The Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, San Francisco.
• 2010.  July. Guest Lecture. “Introduction to African Art. An Illustrated Lecture.” The San Diego Museum of Art.