Awards

Fulbright Award - 1997

South Africa

About Paula Girshick

Paula Girshick is a professor emeritus of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU. She earned her B.A. from Stanford University in 1961 and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Indiana University Bloomington in 1971. After receiving her degree, she taught in the art history department in the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and then became a curator of the African section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. In 1984, Girshick returned to the anthropology department at IU and joined the faculty as an associate professor of anthropology. She added the title of adjunct associate professor of women's studies in 1986. After 29 years of teaching and dedication to the Department of Anthropology, Girshick made the decision to retire in 2012 to devote more time on her research.

Girshick's research has primarily focused around the nature, symbolism, and history of the art of the Edo Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria; the social history of the art world in South Africa; and the history and theory of arts in anthropology. She was awarded the J. William Fulbright Senior Scholar Teaching/Research Fellowship to research in South Africa as well as fellowships from the University of Pennsylvania, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Johns Hopkins University and funding from the American Philosophical Society and the National Endowment for Humanities. She also received support from several organizations within Indiana University including the President's Council on Overseas International Programs and the College of Arts and Humanities Institute.

Girshick is the recipient of the 2006 African Art Recognition Award, Friends of African and African American Art by the Detroit Institute of Arts and the 2009 Visiting Eminent Scholar from the Humanities Center at the University of Alabama.