BU Humanists at Work: Meet John Ott
When John Ott identifies “an itch I feel compelled to scratch,” he knows that he has found his next research project. His past work shows his willingness to follow his intellectual curiosity, with publications on topics ranging from art patrons in Victorian California to photography of Black athletes during the Gilded Age. Ott explains that he is especially excited by the unusual: “When you come across a 1944 history of a mixed-race maritime union with a large gay membership in the form of a black-and -white comic book, you simply have to learn more about it.”
Ott’s research often intersects with and is inspired by his teaching. He developed the idea for his current project, Mixed Media: The Visual Cultures of Racial Integration, 1931–54, while teaching a survey course on African American art. During the process of developing and teaching this class, Ott realized that African American art history and United States art history are often studied and taught as separate, parallel traditions. Noting this inaccurate framing, Ott felt compelled to “find a way to bring these scholarly traditions into conversation.” As soon as he began to examine this problem, he found himself in the middle of a larger discussion: “All of a sudden I started noticing representations of integration and efforts towards the desegregation of arts institutions everywhere.”
Ott plans to bring this dialogue to BU. He describes his appointment as the 2021-2022 Ray and Maragaret Horowitz Visiting Professor as “a dream job,” and notes that he hopes to expose his graduate students to critical Race Art History. During the fall semester, he taught a class focused on how scholars integrate art history through the discussion of black and white artists, patrons, audiences, and institutions within the same analytical frameworks.
Ott’s teaching has been especially rewarding because of BU’s community and location. Ott describes his students as “infectiously enthusiastic and energetic,” and his fellow faculty as “uniformly welcoming and engaging interlocutors.” Being in Boston has allowed for museum visits which perfectly complemented his research and teaching. Over the course of the semester his class toured three MFA exhibitions – Black Histories, Black Futures, Fabric of a Nation, and Women Take the Floor – with Laya Bermeo (Assistant Curator of Paintings, Art of the Americas) and Jennifer Swope (Assistant Curator). Ott’s class also had the opportunity to discuss the Boston Athenæum’s plans for collection reinstallment with Assistant Curators Christina Michelon and Virginia Badgett. Ott summed up his excitement about being able to take advantage of Boston’s rich cultural opportunities saying, “Boston is a fabulous metropolis for the arts.”
When riding the T home from his very last day of classes this semester, Ott was “treated to the glorious sights and sounds of Keytar Bear playing along to Rick James’s ‘Mary Jane’ on the subway platform.” A fitting end to a rewarding semester, Ott took the moment as “the most favorable of omens.” He is excited to see what 2022 has in store.
In Spring 2022 John Ott will be teaching AH 887 Section B1: Art and Race in the Public Sphere.