Profile
Jennifer听A. Scott听is an anthropologist, curator, public historian and museum expert. Her work, for over 25 years, explores connections between arts, history, place and social justice.
In 2022, The National Urban League appointed Jennifer as the founding Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Urban Civil Rights Museum (UCRM) expected to open in Harlem, New York in 2025. UCRM will be New York鈥檚 first museum dedicated to civil rights 鈥 and one of the first in the nation to focus on the history of civil rights in the North.听The new Museum represents a historic opportunity to build a premier cultural and historical institution that will concentrate on the exploration of those narratives specific to the history of the Black freedom struggle that expanded dramatically in the aftermath of the Great Migration of Blacks northward in urban environments across America.
Prior to her post at UCRM,听Professor Scott served in the inaugural position of Senior Vice President of Exhibitions and Programs at the 听in Detroit,听one of the nation's earliest and most significant black arts, history and cultural institutions. Before the Wright, she served, for nearly six years, as Director and Chief Curator at听,听a historic landmark and feminist museum in Chicago that elevated immigrant rights and racial and econmic justice. At Hull-House, Jennifer led the exhibitions, community engagement efforts and overall vision of the museum, launching a听number of ground-breaking exhibitions and programs both within and outside the museum鈥檚 walls. In 2019, the Museum was recognized with the Award for Excellence in Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice by the Association of Midwest Museums.
In Chicago, Jennifer also served as co-chair of the , appointed in 2020 by Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. The commission was created to lead a city-wide initiative that would help rethink the city鈥檚 monuments and public memorials, create public engagement opportunities around problematic monuments and re-imagine new monuments and public art commissions. The project addressed the hard truths of Chicago鈥檚 racial history, confronted the ways in which that history has and has not been memorialized, and more equitably and accurately. Jennifer was also appointed by Mayor Lightfoot to the City of Chicago鈥檚 Cultural Advisory Council in 2020. She served as co-chair for the City鈥檚 Museum Task Force created to help museums re-open under the pandemic. And in 2020, Illinois Governor听JB Pritzker also appointed Jennifer to the newly re-activated Illinois Holocaust and Genocide Commission to provide guidance for听genocide education, public memorial and commemoration across the State.听
Before her work in Chicago, Professor Scott served as the Vice Director and Director of Research for a decade at ,听a museum and nationally significant听historic site in Brooklyn, New York,听that memorializes a Free Black, independent community in the听19thcentury.听There,听she led the museum's research efforts and听co-curated a number of public programs and exhibitions, including two multi-site history and听public art exhibitions:听In Pursuit of Freedom,听which听explored the anti-slavery and abolition history of Brooklyn, and,听in partnership with Creative Time听(2014) that explored historical practices of community resistance.听Jennifer was proudly part of the team that helped to restore and re-interpret the historic site and develop its trademark innovative programming, community engagement and new applications of history, culture and the arts. She helped to build a new $40 million modern center on the site and transform the emerging campus into a present-day cultural destination.
As an oral historian, Jennifer launched Weeksville鈥檚 oral history project, producing Weelsville's first audio archive in over 50 years.听This included "The Lost Jazz Shrines of Brooklyn," the first and only Brooklyn jazz oral history archive.听The Weeksville oral histories tell stories that touch on a nearly a century of Brooklyn history.听Jennifer has conducted oral history and genealogy workshops and institutes with artists, community organizations and universities, and served on oral history advisory boards, including StoryCorps Griot, a national oral history project, which collected the stories of African Americans throughout the US, in collaboration with the Smithsonian鈥檚听, the American Folklife Center and the Library of Congress.听She also served as an oral historian for Brooklyn Historical Society鈥檚听Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations听(CBBG), a project to encourage dialogue about differences and to challenge existing social, racial, ethnic, and national, categories. 听听
Jennifer serves on a number of boards. She is currently the Vice President for the听Association of Midwest Museums, a Board Member for the National Association for Museum Exhibition, and in 2022 she was appointed to editorial board of The Public Historian, a journal of the National Council on Public History.
Professor Scott has taught at 麻豆传媒色情片 for Public Engagement in New York for more than 20 years, and has served as core faculty for a combined 12 years in the graduate program of Museum and Exhibition Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and听at听,听where she designed and taught the foundational course,听Cultural Pluralism in the US: Museum Exhibitions and Issues of Cultural Representation.听Professor Scott teaches courses in arts and civic engagement, cultural anthropology, race and ethnic studies, global studies and museum studies. She researches, writes and lectures locally and internationally on arts and social change, public memory and place,听contested histories and innovative strategies for museums and public history sites. At 麻豆传媒色情片, Professor Scott is also a听Faculty Member on the听.听
As a Fulbright Scholar, Professor Scott has conducted anthropological and art historical research in West Africa, studying women dressmakers, textiles, cloth and material culture in urban Accra, Ghana and throughout the region. 听She is a contributor to a number of museum, heritage and history publications.
Jennifer is a co-author and co-editor of听Anywhere but Here: Black Intellectuals, the听Atlantic World and Beyond听(University Press of Mississippi, 2015/ 听2017), a volume expanding the traditional boundaries of the 鈥淏lack Atlantic鈥 and presenting new research on international and historical intellectual exchanges from the 19thcentury to the present.听Other recent publications include: a contribution to听Transforming Community Development Through Arts and Culture听(2019),听(2019);听鈥听(2017);and听鈥Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-first Century at a Post-Emancipation Site"听(2015).听Professor Scott 听holds degrees in Philosophy, African American Studies/History, and Anthropology from Stanford University; the University of California, Los Angeles; and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, respectively.听
Professional Affiliation
Faculty Advisory Member,听, 麻豆传媒色情片, Nov. 2020- Pres.听
Editorial Board Member, The Public Historian, a journal of the National Council on PublicHistory (NCPH), 2022- Pres.
Vice-President,听听(AMM); Present;听Co-Chair for AMM 2018 Annual Conference, in 2017; 2017-Pres.
Board Member for听听2018 - Pres.
Co-Chair of the for The City of Chicago, Appointed by Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. A collaboration between the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), the Chicago Parks District and Chicago Public Schools (CPS), August 12, 2020 鈥 August 2021.
of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) for The City of Chicago, Appointed by Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, 2020 鈥 2021.
appointed by Illinois Goverenor JB Pritzker, 2020--2021.
2019 - 2021 鈥揥ashington DC.
听Anniversary, 2019-2020 鈥揂tlanta, GA.
2019- 2020.
, artist & curatorial residencies at the, 2016-2018.听听
听national competition sponsored by the American Alliance of Museum鈥檚 (AAM) Curators Committee (CurCom) in cooperation with EdCom and NAME, 2016-2018.
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Recent Publications
Contributor to听d., Meg Duguid, Soberscove Press, Chicago IL, 2020.
Contributor to听, eds., Jeremy Liu & Victor Rubin from PolicyLink and Lyz Crane from ArtPlace America. Chapter: Community Development, Innovation Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco,听Volume 14, Issue 2, 2019. / Innovation Review 2019-2.
Columbia University Press, Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, October 2019.
co-authored by Janeen Bryant, Jennifer Scott and Suzanne Serif, American Alliance of Museums (AAM) Magazine, March-April 2019.听
Association of Midwest Museums, June 9, 2018.
American Alliance of Museums (AAM), Center for the Future of Museums (CFM) Blog, April 3, 2018. Co-authored by:听Janeen Bryant, Benjamin Filene, Louis Nelson, Jennifer Scott, and Suzanne Seriff as a preview for a session听at the 2018 AAM annual meeting.听
(in听Exhibition, 听(Spring 2017)
Contributor to听 Edward Alexander, Mary Alexander and Juliee Decker; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 3rd edition, March 2017.
Co-Editor for 听,听(forthcoming- project:2015- Present) 听
听Open Engagement, April 19, 2017.听
听(, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 73鈥88, May 2015).
听(University Press of Mississippi/ January 2015; Paperback September 2017)
听(, Museumsetc/ Edinburgh [2009]; reprinted 2016)
听(,听MuseumID/ 2011)
鈥淭he Relevancy 鈥 Driven Museum,鈥 (The Museum: Agent of Social Change,听Heritage365/ 2008)
听(Rutgers University Press/ 2006)
听
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Performances and Appearances
Invited Speaker for conference 鈥淚nheritance: How Communities are Responding to Controversial Artwork.鈥 Panelist ffor opening plenary session, 鈥淭he Burdens of Inheritance.鈥 Annual Public Humanities Conference, John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities, Brown University, April 28, 2022 (virtual).
Chair and听Panelist听for "Evolving Exhibitions of Conscience: Exhibitions for Social Justice,鈥 Association of Midwest Museums Annual Conference, 2021.听
Invited Lecturer听for听session,听鈥楽tatue Wars鈥 and the Changing Memorial Landscape,鈥 part of seminar听WGS-4401-001 鈥 Advanced Topics: Feminism and Public听Memory, The University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 2021.
Chair and Panelist听for session,听鈥Belonging and Displacement: Stories Beyond Inclusion,鈥 National Conference on Public History Annual Conference. Theme:听"The Presence and Persistence of Stories.2021.
Invited Speaker听for听session,听. 2021.听
Moderator and Invited Speaker听for听, IL, 2021.鈥渁imed at building racial healing across Chicago鈥o promote civic unity by encouraging Chicagoans to connect across lines of difference and support a collective conversation about our truth and our promise as a City.鈥
Invited Speaker听for听听Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 2021.
Invited Speaker for program series, 鈥
听2020.
Wilmette Historical Society, Illinois, October 15, 2020.听
Panelist for session 鈥淒ialogue Builds Lasting Cultures of Human Rights,鈥 Annual Meeting for the American Association for State and Local History, 2020.听
鈥 2020,
Invited Lecturer for Creative Lab for Cultural Leaders (CLCL) and School of the Art Institute (SAIC), 2020.听
听2020.听
Invited Speaker for.
Speaker for听program听on panel, 鈥淓xpanded Imagination: New Visions for Community Futures,鈥澨齓erba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2019.
Panelist听for session 鈥淒oing Public Scholarship: In, With and For Communities,鈥 American Studies Association Annual Conference (ASA) Honolulu, HI., 2019.
鈥淎ctivating History: Museums as Sites for Social Justice,鈥 Annual Sczepaniak Lecture, Lewis University, Illinois, 2019.听
听Chicago, IL. 2019.
Invited Speaker for 听Arts, Place and Social Change for听鈥淎nd Other Such Stories鈥 conversation, hosted by Chicago Architecture Biennial, Arts Club of Chicago Luncheon, 2019.
panelist for a session at The Museum Innovation Forum/MCNx New Orleans. In celebration of International Museum Day, New Orleans Jazz Museum New Orleans, LA. 2019. 听
- 25thAnniversary Celebration, Brescia University, Owensboro, KY, 2019.
Ramold Center Open House, Continuing Education Presentation and 25thAnniversary Award Ceremony, Brescia University, Owensboro, KY, 2019.
panlelist for session at American Historical Association (AHA) Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, 2019.
an exhibition focusing on the role of feminist artist-run activities in Chicago from the late 19th century to the present. Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL, 2018.
鈥淎rchitecture, Place, Memory & Displacement,鈥 Invited Speaker for international听Roundtable Presentation, sponsored by Chicago Architecture Biennial, Learning Geographies Research Trip, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2018.
, Indianapolis, IN, 2018.
"A Highway Runs Through It: Stories of Displacement,鈥 panelist for session at Association of Midwest Museums, Annual Conference theme:听Fostering Transparency, Strengthening Public Trust, Chicago, IL, 2018.
Chicago, Il, 2018.
(AAM) 2018 Annual Meeting & Museum Expo, Phoenix, Arizona, 2018.听
Gallery Discussion, for exhibition, In Their Own Form,鈥 that听brings together "13 artists and 33 photographic and video works that negotiate a range of Afro-Diasporic experiences." Curated by Sheridan Tucker Anderson.听Panel discussion focuses on Afrofuturist themes听in contemporary art practice, and includes artists, D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem and Ingrid LaFleur. Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, 2018.
鈥淧ast, Present, and Future: The Changing Roles of Women in Planning,鈥 invited panelist for mini-symposium, Sponsored by the Department of Urban Policy and Planning at University of Illinois at Chicago, Women in Planning and Public Affairs (WPPA), the Latino Planning Organization for Development, Education, and Regeneration (LPODER), and the Society for Black Urban Planners (SBUP). Great Cities Institute, UIC, Chicago, Il, 2018.
鈥淧articipatory Arts: Using Contemporary Art to Activate Social Justice Issues at Historic Sites" invited presentation for symposium:听Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, Florida, 2018.
听Live, 90-minute webcast hosted by American Alliance of Museums and National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME), 2017.
听2017,听radical women's history workshop for听听Chicago, IL, 2017听
听Chicago Cultural Alliance, Chicago, IL, 2017.
听&听,听Sponsored by the City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, 2017
sponsored by Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, New York, 2017.
WBEZ, 91.5 Chicago, Morning Shift radio program, 2017.听
"Designing For Outrage" for Designing Emotion panel, sponsored by the National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME). American Alliance of Museums (AAM) 2017 Annual Meeting and Museum Expo, St. Louis, MO, 2017.
听Keynote Address for Institute:听, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 2017.
- part of lecture series: Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University, 2017.
听听sponsored by the Joyce Foundation Culture Convening Series in the Great Lakes, Chicago, IL, 2017.
part of two-day conference, hosted by Washington University and the University of Missouri St. Louis, 2016.
Annual Conference, Science Museum, London, England, 2016.
鈥淧reserving Communities: Rehabilitating Preservation Through Civic Engagement,鈥 National Parks Symposium: Challenging the Exclusive Past: Can Federal Agencies Help Re-orient and Diversify Public Culture in the 21st Century? Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland, 2016.
Keynote Address for 10-year Anniversary Lecture for Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, Graduate Institute on Public Engagement and the Academy, University of Iowa, Iowa, 2016.
Creative Time Summit, New York, 2015.
Anywhere But Here: Black Intellectuals in the Atlantic World and Beyond, 鈥淐ultural Mastery in Foreign Spaces:听 Evolving Visions of Home and Identity,鈥 14th Annual Transatlantic Studies Association Conference, Roosevelt Study Center, Middelburg, The Netherlands, 2015.
Keynote for Center for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence (CEREV), Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, 2015.
Invited Speaker, 鈥淗istory and Civic Engagement,鈥 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, 2015.
Panelist, 鈥淢useums and Public History Sites鈥 Healing History: memory, legacy and social change. Sponsored by Initiatives of Change/Hope in the Cities in collaboration with the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University. Richmond, Virginia, 015.
听听Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, 2014.
鈥淎rt and Social Practice in Urban Spaces,鈥 sponsored by Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NYU Florence, Italy, and Creative Time, La Pietra Conference Center, Florence, Italy, 2012.
鈥淐hanging the World: Perspectives on the Caribbean Diaspora,鈥 reflecting with artists/filmmakers on the evolution of the transatlantic space and the contemporary, on 50 years of independence for Jamaica and Trinidad. The British Museum, London, England, 2012.
Museum of London, Docklands, London, England, 2012.
鈥淏uilding a 21st Century Museum: Innovative Interpretations of Freedom and Approaches to Fundraising, Research, and Programming,鈥 Association of African American Museums (AAAM) Annual Conference: Commemorating Struggles, Claiming Freedom, Reginald Lewis Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, 2012.
鈥淓arly African & African-American Communities in New York 17th to 19th Centuries鈥 听Schomburg Center for Research and Culture, New York, 2011.
鈥淎rt on Parade: Between Procession and Demonstration, Carnival and Spectacle,鈥 Wyoming, Ludlow 38 Gallery, Goethe Center, New York, New York, 2009.
鈥淭he Use of Textiles in the Work of Yinka Shonibare,鈥 Gallery Talk for exhibition, 鈥Yinka Shonibare MBE,鈥 Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, a major mid-career survey of work by UK/ Nigerian artist, 2009.听
鈥淭raditional and Contemporary African Dress,鈥 Program in Costume Studies, Department of Art and Art Professions, New York University, New York, 2009.
Research Interests
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Ethnology/ Ethnography; Women, Dress, cloth/ textiles & Material Culture; African Diaspora; West Africa; Material Culture; Narrative/Oral history; Public Memory, Contested Heritage Sites, Memorials and Monuments, Museums and Public Engagement;听