Kristen Laciste

Education

BA, University of California, Los Angeles
MA, PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz

Biography

Dr. Kristen Laciste specializes in art and visual culture from Africa and teaches courses related to African art history. Her writing and research interests include African fashion subcultures, particularly The Society of Ambiance Makers and Elegant Persons (La SAPE) based in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afrofuturism, and the transatlantic slave trade and slavery.

Before coming to FIT, Dr. Laciste was the 2023 Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Smarthistory: The Center for Public Art History. There, she contributed essays in the arts of Africa section.

Selected Publications

“Practical Work: Sapeuses (Women Sapeurs) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.” African Arts 56, vol. 4 (forthcoming, Winter 2023).   

New Media Review of To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes, ed. Ilisa Barbash, Molly Rogers and Deborah Willis. Visual Studies 37, no. 4 (2022): 394-398.

“Writing with Others.” African Arts 55, no. 2 (2022): 7-7. 

“In Conversation with Erick Msumanje and Alexis Hithe.” Authored with Erick Msumanje and Alexis Hithe. Refract: An Open Access Visual Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2018).

Courses

• HA 123 African Art and Civilization
• HA 230 Modern and Contemporary African Art
• HA 239 History of African Textiles and Fashion
• HA 253 Afrofuturist Art and Visual Culture