Sarah Clunis

Sarah Clunis is originally from Kingston, Jamaica and received her PhD in art history in 2006 from the University of Iowa. Clunis is the Director of Academic Partnerships and Curator of the African Collection at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Before joining the Peabody in 2021, Clunis served as director of the Xavier University Art Gallery, supervisor of the Art Collection team, and assistant professor of art history at Xavier University of Louisiana for 7 years. Clunis has taught art history and curated for over twenty years at public universities and historically Black colleges and universities. Her research, classes, and exhibitions have focused on the history of African art and the display of African objects in western museum settings. She also studies the influence of African aesthetics and philosophy on the arts and religious rituals and cultural identities of the African diaspora. Her work examines gender, race, and migration in multiple contexts. She has published in both national and international magazines and journals. Clunis is committed to work that centers oral histories, indigenous scholarship, descendant communities, and the repatriation of cultural property.