“How Do We Know What We Know?”: Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi on Fieldwork and Evidence

In the Foreground: Conversations on Art & Writing

In this episode, Alice Matthews ('21 graduate of the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art) speaks with Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi, associate professor of the historical and present-day arts of West Africa at Emory University. They discuss the trajectory that ultimately brought Susan to her field, including undergraduate internships with the Baltimore Museum of Art. Susan reflects on her research methodology and the process of establishing relationships and conducting interviews in Burkina Faso. She discusses her current, born-digital project, Mapping Senufo: Art, Evidence, and the Production of Knowledge, and reflects on the significance of the digital humanities to art history. Susan also shares her thoughts on the importance of collaboration among scholars as well as with other professionals, and the need to challenge what we think we know.