New Sun Chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture

Synopsis
To increase the profile of Aboriginal artists, issues, and cultural expression.

Research and Development
Drawing upon his background in contemporary Aboriginal issues and his interest in their aesthetic manifestation in literature and the visual arts, Allan Ryan’s book is an interdisciplinary study of the influence of the Trickster figure, such as Coyote, and its importance to Native culture. In The Trickster Shift Ryan explores the significance of humour and irony in the work of such Canadian Native artists as Carl Beam, George Littlechild, Rebecca Belmore, Joane Cardinal-Schubert, Jim Logan, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. His current research focuses on the contributions of Aboriginal cartoonists.

Ryan’s interests include postmodern theory, postcolonial theory, comparative indigenous minorities, cultural representation in museums, and the field of humour studies. Ryan has designed new courses and forged interdisciplinary connections with other departments, such as Film Studies.

As the first university chair of its kind in Canada, the New Sun Chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture has enabled Ryan to promote the academic study of Aboriginal art and culture, and attract new scholars to the growing field.

Allan Ryan has completed a film guide for the National Film Board of Canada (in association with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade). Entitled Visual Voices: A Festival of Canadian Aboriginal Film and Video, the guide will be translated into Spanish and Portuguese, and serve to contextualize a collection of NFB videos by Aboriginal directors to be circulated throughout South America by the Canadian Embassy. This project was officially launched in fall, 2004. He also prepared a chapter on Aboriginal film for Self-portrait: Essays on the Canadian and Quebec Cinemas, co-edited by André Loiselle and Tom McSorley, to be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press; and an essay on Aboriginal cartoonists for Whacking the Funny Bone: Canadian Aboriginal Humour, edited by Drew Hayden Taylor for Douglas & McIntyre, 2005.

Ryan  co-curated About Face, a major exhibition of Native American self-portraits which opened at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2005.

Biography
Allan Ryan has been a member of the Carleton University faculty since July 2001. He holds the New Sun Chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture, a joint faculty appointment in the School of Canadian Studies and the Art History unit in the School for Studies in Art and Culture. As New Sun Chair, Ryan organizes the annual New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts each spring.

Major Awards/Honours

• 2000 American Book Award – The Trickster Shift: Humour and Irony in Contemporary Native Art

Contact:
School of Canadian Studies/School for Studies in Art and Culture
Department: 613-520-3993
Office: 613-520-2600 ext.4035
Email: allan_ryan@carleton.ca
Personal Website