Sarah Anita Clunis, PhD

Dr. Sarah A. Clunis is originally from Kingston Jamaica and received her Ph.D. in Art History 2006 and a Masters in Art History in 2000 from the University of Iowa. Dr. Clunis is the Director of the Xavier University Art Gallery, Supervisor of the Art Collection team and Assistant Professor of Art History at Xavier University of Louisiana. She specializes in the Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora from traditional to contemporary. She has worked for over 20 years with the private collections of African and Diaspora art in Europe, the US, and the Caribbean. Dr. Clunis has done extensive work with University collections both with University museums and galleries and with collections management of smaller endowments for growing institutions. She has also taught Art History for over 20 years at various public universities and HBCUs including Xavier and SUNO. Her research and classes focus on the history of African art and the display of African objects in Western museum settings as well as looking at the influence of African aesthetics and philosophy on the arts, religious rituals and cultural identities of the African Diaspora. Dr. Clunis continues to work on multiple projects on the visual culture of Afrofuturism.