Raymond Silverman

Raymond Silverman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History of Art and the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. In 2002, he joined the UM faculty to launch a new interdisciplinary graduate program in Museum Studies—he stepped down as Director of the program in 2012. Silverman is a historian of the visual cultures of Africa. Most of his research writing has been undertaken in Ghana and Ethiopia, where he has explored a range of subjects dealing with historical and social dimensions of metallurgy and the visual culture of religion, specifically of Islam and indigenous religions in Ghana, and the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia. His publications include three books dealing with Ethiopian art, Ethiopian Church Art: Painters, Patrons, Purveyors (2022), Painting Ethiopia: The Life and Work of Qes Adamu Tesfaw (2005) and Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity (1999) as well as articles and essays dealing with a range of topics focused on the arts of Ghana, Ethiopia, museums and heritage. Silverman has also edited two volumes dealing with museums in Africa and beyond, National Museums in Africa: Identity, History and Politics (2022) and Museum as Process: Translating Local and Global Knowledges (2015).

Affiliation(s)

• Department of the History of Art
• Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
• Museum Studies Program
• African Studies Center

Field(s) of Study

• Visual cultures of Africa, museum studies