PERI KLEMM

BIO

Assistant Professor, 2003

My first teaching experience began during my sophomore year at U.C. San Diego while on a research trip in the Kingdom of Tonga, Polynesia. With a studio arts background I was asked to teach drawing at Queen Salote College. From this experience an interest in teaching and non-Western art developed. I have taught at Emory University (The Arts of East and Southern Africa, Arts of the Body in the Non-Western World), the Atlanta College of Art (Global Perspectives on Art, The Decorated Body), the Art Institute of California-San Diego (World Civilizations, A Survey of Art), the University of California, San Diego (A History of Non-Western Art). In my position at CSUN, I teach a range of courses on African, Oceanic, and Native American art history and exhibition design.

I began studying African art while attending the University of Ghana in 1991. I have since conducted twelve years of research in Ethiopia (in 1999-2000 as a Fulbright scholar) on Oromo women’s personal arts. My research focuses on the ensemble of body arts including clothing, jewelry, hairstyles, tattooing, and scarification. An Oromo woman’s decorated body is layered with intended messages that communicate non-verbally her social and biological position in society, impart information about her political and spiritual beliefs, and creatively construct an Oromo visual heritage. My dissertation research, in particular, explored how categories of dress acquire new and situational meanings and uses within the Oromo aesthetic system through the historical processes and cultural institutions central to the lives of Oromo women. I continue this research among a refugee Oromo population who now reside in Nairobi, Kenya and I am planning an upcoming trip to the Congo to examine the connections between women’s art and trauma. My research interests include the confluence of aesthetic discourse and the body through the medium of performance, including spirit possession, life cycle rituals, and religious observances

My recent publications include: “Leather Amulets in Ethiopia” in Faith and Transformation: Votive Offerings and Amulets from the Alexander Girard Collection. Museum of International Folk Art, Museum of New Mexico Press, “Dress in Djibouti and Eritrea” and “Dress in Ethiopia” in Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Odyssey Web Site. Teacher Resource Site for African Art, and co-editor and contributor of African Arts Journal: special issue on contemporary Ethiopian expressive culture. I’ve also curated two exhibitions at CSUN (Island Affinities: Contemporary Art of Oceania 2007 and African Art in the Life Cycle 2005) and abroad (Women’s Costumes in Eastern Ethiopia at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies Museum, Addis Ababa University 2003). My photographs of Ethiopia and Oromo women appeared in the exhibition Ethiopian Crossroads: Photographs of a Land and Its People at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA 2005.

At CSUN I started a campus-wide discussion group with colleagues from Anthropology, Religious Studies, and Women’s Studies called ‘The Global Village Forum.’ We present roundtable discussions each semester on issues that relate to globalization for students and the community. New members are always welcome!