Ozi Uduma

Born and raised in Detroit, MI, I am an alumna of the University of Michigan, where I received my BA in Afroamerican and African Studies (Honors) and Anthropology. For the last five years, I worked at the University of Michigan Museum of Art as a curatorial research assistant (2018 - 2020) and then as the Assistant Curator of Global Contemporary Art (2020 - 2023). My art interest mostly focuses on modern and contemporary Black artists across the diaspora. For my dissertation, I aspire to examine the critical role women artists played in nation building post-independence projects and in the development of a newly independent national identity. Specifically, I am interested in the ways artists like Felicia Abban and Chief Afiong Ekong used their artistry as a mechanism for cultural constructions of national identity and modern womanhood during the early years of independence.