 The African Art History program led by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie provides instruction in classical, modern and contemporary African arts with a sustained interest in African Diaspora arts and cultures. Courses and research address the recent shift in the field of African art history to include visual culture and performance studies. The program emphasizes new interpretations of African art addressing how art objects and practices mediate interpersonal and social relationships in indigenous and contemporary African cultures. One of the first art history departments to offer a focus on the study of classical African art, the program has expanded to include contemporary art, and colonial and postcolonial representations in the arts and visual cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora. Recent courses include Rethinking African Art History, Black Aesthetics and the Politics of Representation, and Alternative Modernisms in African and African Diaspora Arts. The program has secured significant funding for African art history research which gives the program wider influence in the field and promotes the study of African visual culture.Ogbechie has recently initiated new researchopportunities in the interface of African cultures and film technologies by organizing the First International Nollywood Convention and Symposium (Los Angeles, June 2005), which is planned as an annual initiative. Initiatives such as these offer students opportunities to actively participate and familiarize themselves with a wide range of African responses to globalization.
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