Maya Harakawa

Maya Harakawa

First Name: 
Maya
Last Name: 
Harakawa
Title: 
Assistant Professor (she/her)
Office Location : 
Sidney Smith Hall, Room 6048
Biography : 

I am an art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art of the African Diaspora. In both my research and teaching, I emphasize how the field of Black Studies can offer new methodological and historiographic possibilities for art history. Fellowships from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora have supported my current book project on art and Harlem in the 1960s.

My writings have been published or are forthcoming in American Art, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, and Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art. In 2026, I was awarded the Arthur Kingsley Porter Jr. Prize from The Art Bulletin. 

Education: 
PhD Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY
MPhil Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY
BA Art History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Williams College
Personal Website: 
https://mayaharakawa.com/

People Type:

Roles:

Research Area:

Areas of Interest: 
  • Black Art in North America and the Caribbean
  • The Relationship between Art and Politics
Cross-Appointments: 
Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies (faculty affiliate)
Centre for Caribbean Studies (faculty affiliate)

Campus: