Skip to Main Content

Center for Black Visual Culture (CBVC) at the Institute of African American Affairs (IAAA)

A curated selection of scholarly resources inspired by CBVC/IAAA exhibitions and artist-scholar residencies.

Welcome!

The Center for Black Visual Culture (CBVC) at The Institute of African American Affairs (IAAA) has long been an invaluable resource for the exchange of ideas pertinent to Black studies and its intersections with the visual and performing arts, politics, and popular culture. The goal of this research guide is to link resources at and beyond NYU that support further engagement with the scholarly ideas being explored by the center's artist-scholars in residence and exhibitions. 

About the CBVC/IAAA

The CBVC/IAAA at New York University are both interdisciplinary spaces for students, faculty, post-doc fellows, artists, scholars and the general public. Founded in 1969, IAAA’s mission continues to research, document, and celebrate the cultural and intellectual production of Africa and its diaspora in the Atlantic world and beyond with a commitment to the study of Blacks in modernity through concentrations in Pan-Africanism and Black Urban Studies. The CBVC, expanding on that mission, is a space for scholarly and artistic inquiry (framing and reframing) into the understanding and exploration of images focusing on black people globally with critical evaluation of images in multiple realms of culture, including how various archives and the development of visual technologies affect the construction of representations. The goals of IAAA & CBVC converge to promote and encourage collaborative research projects, experimental learning and open spaces to the larger community for broad and thematic discussions through various, diverse and dynamic public programming and initiatives by way of conferences, lectures, workshops, screenings, exhibitions, readings, performances, visiting scholars, artist residencies and publications.

The CBVC/IAAA Team

Black and white headshot of Dr. Deborah Willis on a blue background. Black woman with short haircut, smiling and looking straight into the camera, wearing dangling earrings and a scarf around her neck.

Deborah Willis,Ph.D, Founding Director
 

Black and white headshot of Dr. Deborah Willis on a blue background. Black woman with a short haircut, smiling and looking straight into the camera, wearing a sleeveless shirt.

Joan Morgan, Ph.D, Director

Black and white headshot of Kalila Abdur-Razzaq on blue background. Black women with cornrows staring straight into the camera wearing hoop earrings and a printed blouse,
Kalila Abdur-Razzaq, Program Manager

 

black and white headshot of Cyd Fulton on blue background. a black woman with shoulder length hair posed with her chin on her hand starring into the camera.

Cyd Fulton, Administrative Aide


To stay up to date on CBVC/IAAA events and exhibitions, go their website.