Amy Schwartzott

Dr. Amy Schwartzott is Associate Professor of Art History at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University where she is Curator of University Galleries. She earned her PhD in Art History from the University of Florida in 2014. Schwartzott’s research interests include African art (contemporary and historical); artists who utilize recycled materials (African and global expressions); and art as a tool for peace and post-conflict resolution. Continuing research in Mozambique focused on artists who use recyclia as media in their artwork resulted in two awards from the U.S. Fulbright program, including the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship and the Fulbright IIE Fellowship, as well as a Centre for Conflict Studies Fellowship. Recent research includes more diverse inquiry into both visual and performative cultures of contemporary Mozambican arts.

Her recent publications include “Unraveling and Welding Together: War’s Transformative Influence on Contemporary Mozambican Art,” in The Art of Emergency: Aesthetics and Aid in African Crises (Oxford University Press, 2020); “Recycling Discarded Histories to Chronicle Identities: Making Art from Waste in Mozambique,” in Waste: Papers on Disposability, Decay, and Depletion (Open Library of Humanities Journal, UK, 2019); “Healing the Pain of War through Art – Mozambique’s Grassroots Approach to Post-Conflict Resolution: Transfomação de Armas em Enxadas/Transforming Weapons into Plowshares,” in Dialogues with Mozambique: Interdisciplinary Reflections, Readings and Approaches on
Mozambican Studies (Brill, 2018).

Schwartzott has curated exhibitions nationally and internationally in Cape Town, South Africa and Maputo, Mozambique and also serves on the editorial board of ‘African Performance Review,’ the African Theatre Association’s flagship publication. She holds dual positions for the Global Center for Religious Research where she is Head of Global Arts and Religion on the Board of Directors, as well as Treasurer within the Academic Society Officers. She has recently been appointed as a grant reviewer for the national Fulbright competitions and participates in the yearly Advanced Placement Art History Reading each summer.