History of Art Department University of Michigan 55A Tappan Hall 519 South State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1357 CLAUDIA BRITTENHAM 300 Wildwood Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Phone: (734) 929-2167 Cell: (734) 678-4221 Fax: (734) 647-4121 britten@umich.edu EDUCATION Ph.D., History of Art, Yale University, 2008 Graduate Certificate of Concentration in Latin American Studies, 2008 Dissertation: The Cacaxtla Painting Tradition: Art and Identity in Epiclassic Mexico Committee: Mary Ellen Miller (chair), Elizabeth Boone, Stephen Houston, Lillian Tseng M.A., History of Art, Yale University, 2003 B.A., History of Art, Yale University, 1999, summa cum laude, with distinction in the major Senior essay: Tikal s Central Acropolis: Architecture, History and Ritual in a Maya Palace Group HONORS and AWARDS Postdoctoral Fellow, Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan, 2008-2009, 2010-2012 Includes appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Art Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Recent Doctoral Recipient Fellowship, 2009-2010 Will suspend Michigan Society of Fellows appointment for this fellowship Frances Blanshard Prize, Yale University, 2008 Awarded for an outstanding dissertation submitted to the History of Art Department Theron Rockwell Field Prize, Yale University, 2008 Awarded to dissertation; for a poetic, literary, or religious work of scholarship Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities, Yale University, 2007-2008 Awarded annually to twelve doctoral candidates completing dissertations in the humanities Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2005-2006 Academic affiliation: Visiting Investigator and member of the Seminario del Proyecto la Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Josef Albers Traveling Fellowship for research in Precolumbian art, Yale University, 2003-2008 For research in Mexico (2006, 2007, 2008), research in Mexico and Guatemala (2005), research in Peru (2004), research in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize (2003)
Foreign Language Area Scholarship, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2003 and 2005 For summer study of Yucatec Maya, beginning (2003) and intermediate (2005) levels Tinker Field Research Grant for travel in Mexico, Yale University, 2004 Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Fund Award, Yale University, 2004 Dunhuang Art and Society On-site International Seminar, Silkroad Foundation, 2001 Mark Deitz Memorial Prize, Yale University, 1999 Awarded to senior essay; for original research in the History of Art Phi Beta Kappa (Secretary), Yale University, 1997 TEACHING EXPERIENCE Assistant Professor, Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, 2008 Junior Proseminar: Mexican Murals, Fall 2008 Lecturer, Department of Art and Art History, University of Connecticut, Storrs, 2007 Art of Mesoamerica, Spring 2007 Teaching Fellow, Department of the History of Art, Yale University, 2003-2005 Roman Architecture (Diana Kleiner), Spring 2005 History of Western Art: Prehistory to the Renaissance (Vincent Scully), Fall 2004 History of Western Art: Renaissance to the Present (Christopher Wood and David Joselit), Spring 2004 Art and Architecture of Mesoamerica (Mary Miller), Fall 2003 Teaching Interests Arts of Latin America, Art and Architecture of Mesoamerica, Art and Architecture of the Andes, Maya Art and Architecture, Aztec Art and Architecture, Inca Art and Architecture, Mexican Mural Painting from Prehistory to the Present, Sixteenth Century Mexican Art, Sixteenth Century Peruvian Art, Image and Text in Mesoamerican Art, History of Textiles MUSEUM EXPERIENCE Assistant Curator, Eastern Hemisphere Collections, The Textile Museum, 2000-2002 Curatorial Assistant, Eastern Hemisphere Collections, The Textile Museum, 1999-2000 Curatorial Intern, Museum for African Art, 1999 Education Intern, National Museum of African Art, 1998 Claudia Brittenham 2
PUBLICATIONS Style and substance, or why the Cacaxtla paintings were buried. Accepted pending revisions at RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. About Time: Problems of narrative in the Battle Mural at Cacaxtla. Accepted pending revisions at RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. Stephen D. Houston, Claudia Brittenham, Cassandra Mesick, Alexandre Tokovinine, and Christina Warinner. Veiled Brightness: A History of Maya Color. Austin: University of Texas Press, forthcoming, Summer 2009. Los pintores de Cacaxtla. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México: Cacaxtla, edited by Mária Teresa Uriarte. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, forthcoming, 2009. Mary Miller and Claudia Brittenham. Maya Architecture. In Mesoamerican Architecture, edited by María Teresa Uriarte. Milan: Jaca Books, forthcoming, 2009. (English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian editions will be published simultaneously.) De pinturas enterradas: el destino de la pintura mural de Cacaxtla. In Estéticas del des(h)echo: Memoria del XXX Coloquio Internacional de Historia del Arte. México: Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, forthcoming, 2009. Imágenes en un paisaje sagrado: huacas de piedra de los Incas. In La imagen sagrada y sacralizada: Memoria del XXVIII Coloquio Internacional de Historia del Arte. México: Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, forthcoming, 2008. Los pintores del Mural de la Batalla de Cacaxtla. In Memoria del Primer Coloquio Internacional sobre Cacaxtla a sus XXX Años de Investigación. Tlaxcala: Centro Regional INAH-Tlaxcala, 2007. The Gift of Cloth: Highlights of Yale s Japanese Textile Collection. Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, 2007. Secrets of Silk, The Textile Museum Bulletin, Summer 2002, 4-5. Deceptively Simple: The Complexities of Plain Weave, The Textile Museum Bulletin, Winter 2001, 7. Japanese Fishermen s Coats from Awaji Island, Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, Issue 127, Summer 2001, 17-21. Japanese Fishermen s Coats from Awaji Island, The Textile Museum Bulletin, Summer 2001, 4-5. Claudia Brittenham 3
Exploring Chinese Culture through Silk, review of Zhao Feng, Treasures in Silk, http://www.cloudband.com/magazine, August 2000. Sumru Belger Krody, Maury Sullivan, Rebecca Kasemeyer, and Claudia Brittenham, contributing editors, Flowers of Silk and Gold Online, http://www.textilemuseum.org/fsg, February 2000. Carol Bier, Tom Cook, and Claudia Brittenham, Secret Pleasures, Ghereh, 21, Autumn 1999, 70-3. PRESENTATIONS Buried Treasure: A brief introduction to the Cacaxtla paintings. Michigan Society of Fellows colloquium, University of Michigan, October 2008. Style and Substance, or, Why the Cacaxtla Paintings Were Buried. Work in Progress Talk, Department of the History of Art, Yale University, September 2007. About Time: On the Denial of Narrative in the Battle Mural at Cacaxtla. Symposium on the History of Art, The Frick Collection, April 2007. The Red Temple at Cacaxtla, Mexico: The Curious Case of the Hidden Feathers. Invited presentation at the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Connecticut, Storrs, April 2007. Cacaxtla Figural Ceramics. Co-presentation with Debra Nagao. College Art Association Annual Conference, February 2007. El destino de la pintura mural de Cacaxtla. Estéticas del des(h)echo, XXX Coloquio Internacional de Historia del Arte, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, October 2006. Los Pintores del Mural de la Batalla de Cacaxtla. Primer Coloquio Internacional sobre Cacaxtla a sus XXX Años de Investigación, Centro Regional INAH-Tlaxcala, September 2006. The Politics of Public Painting at Cacaxtla, Mexico, A.D. 600-900. The Politics of Public Art, 17th Annual Graduate Symposium, University of California, Berkeley, March 2006. Los Pintores de Cacaxtla. Seminario del Proyecto la Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, January 2006. Identifying Artists Hands in the Cacaxtla Murals. College Art Association Annual Conference, February 2005. The Artists of the Cacaxtla Battle Mural. Brown Bag Series, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, January 2005. Claudia Brittenham 4
Imágenes en un paisaje sagrado: huacas de piedra de los Incas. La imagen sagrada y sacralizada, XXVIII Coloquio Internacional de Historia del Arte, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, October 2004. Constructing and Reconstructing the City of Tenochtitlan. Constructing the City, Graduate Student Conference, Yale University, November 2003. The Other Cotton Textiles from Fustat, Egypt. Communities and Commodities: Western India and the Indian Ocean, Interdisciplinary Workshop, University of Michigan, November 2002. At The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.: EXHIBITIONS The Secrets of Silk, Coordinating and Contributing Curator, 2002 Deceptively Simple: The Complexities of Plain Weave, Coordinating and Contributing Curator, 2001 From the Amu Darya to the Potomac: Central Asian Bags from Area Collections, Coordinator, 2001 Japanese Fishermen s Coats from Awaji Island, Coordinator, 2001 Body Conscious: A Look at Clothing around the World, Contributing Curator, 2001 Dyeing for Design, Contributing Curator, 2000 Considering Excellence: Great Works from The Textile Museum Collections, Contributing Curator, 2000 Flowers of Silk and Gold: Four Centuries of Ottoman Embroidery, Coordinator, 2000 PROFESSIONAL and PUBLIC SERVICE Mesoamerican Art and Civilization. Guest lecture in Latin America: The Colonial Period, Professor Jeremy Mumford, Department of History, University of Michigan, September 2008 A New Look at Ancient Maya Textiles. Archaeological Institute of America, Washington D.C. Society, May 2008 Medium and Dimension in Maya Art. Art and Learning, Yale University Art Gallery, March 2008 Life at the Maya Courts. Public lecture at East Lyme Public Library, Niantic, CT, September 2007 Graduate Ambassador, Department of the History of Art, Yale University, 2007-2008 Claudia Brittenham 5
Pre-Columbian Art Workshop: Representations of Kings and the Court in Maya Ceramic Vases. Visual Art and Politics in Latin America. Professional Development Workshop for Educators, Programs in International Educational Resources, Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, Yale University, March 2007 Graduate Student Representative, Library Committee, Department of the History of Art, Yale University, 2002-2004 Chair, Collections Management Database Selection Committee, The Textile Museum, 2001 Member, Collections Committee; Exhibitions Committee; Research, Publications, Library, and Education Committee, The Textile Museum, 2000-2002 Search Committee Member (4 searches), The Textile Museum, 2000-2002 Spanish (fluent), French (advanced) Yucatec Maya, Italian, Japanese (intermediate) LANGUAGES PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS College Art Association, Association of Latin American Art Claudia Brittenham 6