RADFORD – Radford University Associate Professor of Art History Roann Barris has been named a Fulbright Scholar and will be conducting research in Russia in the next academic year. The national scholar competition requires the professor to develop a research proposal and syllabi related to teaching areas of interest for a host institution in the city or country in which they prefer to teach.

Barris (right) joins Art Department Chair and Professor Steve Arbury and Art Museum Co-Director and Associate Professor of Art and Art Education Richard Bay in receiving the prestigious honor. Arbury previously received a Fulbright Award to Spain, with the award being renewed a second year. Bay previously received two Fulbright awards, one in The Netherlands and one in Ghana.

A United States committee of scholars screens applicants. If competitors pass the first screening, credentials are sent to the preferred host institution where it will be determined if a match can be made and if there is allocated money.

Barris’ first choice of cities was Moscow and the topics listed were contemporary art history and/or museum studies. “This is not only a teaching award. It's a lecture-research award and I will be doing research related to my continued area of studying Russian avant-garde art and theater in the 1920s,” says Barris, who is also co-director of the RU Art Museum.

Barris received her doctorate from the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. Her dissertation research was the beginning of her interest in Russian constructivism in the theater. At that time, she received an IREX fellowship for a year of research in Moscow. Her research has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals. Most recently, she published an article on museum spectatorship, “Empowerment or Manipulation: The Seductive Betrayal of Art,” in the Romanian Pavilion’s Catalogue for the 53rd Venice Biennale. The essay led to some of her ideas for the course of museum studies she proposed to teach at the Moscow Institute of Art History.

The syllabus for her course “Performing Contemporary Art” combines ideas Barris used in her RU course on 20th century art with material she is currently developing in her museum studies course on the history of exhibitions.

To learn more about Barris’ work, she her vita online.