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Susan Falls

Liberal arts professor

Education

  • Ph.D., anthropology, City University of New York
  • M.A., anthropology, Hunter College
  • B.A., philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Credentials

  • Professor, anthropology, 2007–present, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
  • Visiting assistant professor of anthropology, 2005–2007, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
  • Hunt postdoctoral fellowship, 2015–2016, Wenner-Gren
  • Instructional technology fellow, 2003–2005, City University of New York, McCauley Honors College/Baruch, New York
  • Writing fellow, 2001–2003, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Program, CUNY College of Technology Community College, Brooklyn, NY
  • Research associate, 2001–2004, Professor Rob Horowitz/Arts Education Consulting, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.
  • Research assistant, 2000, Professor Marc Edelman, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York

Awards, recognitions, and honors

  • Dean’s Award for Collaborative Teaching, SCAD School of Building Arts, 2015
  • Dean’s Award, Interdisciplinary Teaching, SCAD School of Building Arts, 2014
  • Textile Society of America Founding Presidents Award nominee, 2012
  • Research Fund Grant, Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (w/ J. Smith), 2016–2017
  • Faculty Travel Grant, Savannah College of Art and Design, 2007–2018
  • Wenner-Gren Foundation Hunt Postdoctoral Award, 2015
  • Faculty Research Grant, Savannah College of Art and Design, 2015
  • Presidential Fellowship, Savannah College of Art and Design, 2013
  • Design History Society Research Award, 2012
  • Presidential Fellowship, Savannah College of Art and Design, 2010
  • Temple University Faculty Initiative Research Grant, 2007
  • J. W. Thompson Archive Research Fellowship, Duke University, N.C., 2003
  • CUNY Graduate Center Instructional Technology Fellowship, 2003–2005
  • CUNY Graduate Center Writing Across the Curriculum Fellowship, 2001–2003
  • PSC Tuition Grant, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 2002–2003
  • Anthropology Department Tuition Grant, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 1999–2001

Organizations

  • President, Society for the Anthropology of North America, 2015–2017
  • Section program editor for 2015, 2016 Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Society for Visual Anthropology (with Fiona Macdonald), 2015–2016
  • President elect, Society for the Anthropology of North America, 2014–2015
  • Section program editor for 2010, 2011 Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Society of Economic Anthropology, 2014
  • Board member, Society of Visual Anthropology, 2013–2016
  • Editorial board member, The Cine-Files, 2013–2014
  • Board member, Society of Economic Anthropology, 2012–2014
  • Secretary, Society of Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology, 2011–2015
  • Contributing editor, Anthropology News, Society of Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology Column, 2011–2015
  • Editorial board member, Open Anthropology, 2012
  • Section program editor for Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Society for the Anthropology of North America (with Julian Brash), 2010–2011
  • Board member, Society for the Anthropology of North America, 2010–2014
  • Editor, North American Dialogue, 2010–2015

Publications and presentations

Books

  • White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2017.
  • Clarity, Cut and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds. New York: New York University Press, 2014.
  • Falls, Susan, and Jessica Smith. Overshot: The Political Aesthetic of Textiles. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 2020.
  • Falls, Susan, Taylor Nelms, Jeremy Rayner, and George Souvlis, eds. Back to the 30s? Crisis, Repetition and Transition in the 20th and 21st Centuries. London: Palgrave, 2020.

Exhibitions

  • White Gold: Projections and Possibilities, Whitefield Gallery. Savannah, Ga., 2017.
  • Fold/Unfold, installation with Jessica Smith, East Carolina University, Wellington Grey Gallery, Greenville, N.C., 2017.
  • Fold/Unfold: Antebellum Textiles and Modernism, installation and community performance with J. Smith, Lyndon Ware Cultural Center, Athens, Ga., June 19–Aug. 20, 2017.
  • "Field Note Book/White Gold," Ethnography in the Expanded Field, The Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography and Social Thought (GIDEST) and Parsons School of Design Strategies. Ed B. Adams, S. Brown, and J. Bruce, 2016.

Invited lectures

  • "Fold Unfold: A Curator’s Talk," Grey Gallery, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C., 2017.
  • "Coverlets and Op-Art," with J. Smith, Lyndon Ware Arts Center, Athens, Ga., 2017.
  • "The Many Meanings of Diamonds," Beyond Bling: Jewelry from the Lois Boardman Collection Symposium, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.
  • "The Jackson Sisters, Colonial Revival and Modernity," with Jessica Smith,  Eighth Annual Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga., 2016.
  • "Public Art in Urban Spaces," Department of Anthropology, Montclair State University, N.J., 2015.
  • Panelist for "Racial Equality Today," following production of E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime. Lucas Theatre for the Arts, Savannah, Ga., 2015
  • "Covering Race: The Story of a Woven Coverlet," Seventh Annual Henry D.  Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. (with Jessica Smith), 2014.
  • "'Enoch and the Gorilla' meets The Meanings of Diamonds," writers series, Flannery O’Connor House, Savannah, Ga., 2014.
  • "Savannah Is Open for Business," Telfair Museum WITIBAG Lecture Series, Savannah, Ga., 2012