
This site highlights the current research of Raymond Silverman, Professor Emeritus of History of Art, African Studies and Museum Studies at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).
As a historian of visual culture, my research explores the historical and contemporary visual practices of Africa, especially Ethiopia and Ghana. I am particularly interested in the migration of objects across space and time and and how material knowledge shapes societies.
In the field of critical museum and heritage studies, I have been considering museum and heritage discourse in Africa, specifically how local knowledge is translated in national and community-based cultural institutions.
In addition to academic projects, I have curated a number of exhibitions dealing with the arts of Africa, especially Ghana and Ethiopia.