Anne Allen (Art History) is Professor of Fine Arts and has taught at Indiana University Southeast since 1994. She also oversees the Art History and Art Appreciation curriculum. Anne received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from the University of California, San Diego. Her Master of Arts in Art History is from California State University, San Diego. Her Master’s thesis is The Tapa Cloth of Tonga and Samoa: A Study in Continuity and Change. Anne received her Doctor of Philosophy in Art History from Columbia University in New York City. Her dissertation is titled Space as Social Construct: The Vernacular Architecture of Rural Samoa. She is a Fulbright-Hays Scholar, which funded a full year of research in the independent Pacific nation of Samoa. She returns there whenever possible to continue her work. Her research areas include Pacific village architecture, cloth, and ritual, and how these are reflected in and facilitate cultural conceptualizations and usage of the spatial domain. She has numerous publications in the field of Pacific Art History as well as international and national conference presentations. Anne is currently co-editor of the international journal Pacific Arts. She is a member of the College Art Association, the Pacific Arts Association, the Polynesian Society, and the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania.
In addition to her scholarly work Anne has received numerous awards for teaching, including the Indiana University Southeast Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005. She was selected as a member of Indiana University’s FACET (Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching) in 2004 and currently acts as the campus liaison to the statewide organization. In 2008 she was presented with a Trustees Teaching Award. At Indiana University Southeast she teaches a broad range of topics including both Western and indigenous art traditions: Native America, South Pacific, Africa, Baroque, Japanese, Northern Renaissance, and Ancient art, among others. Anne also sponsors trips to major cities such as Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York on a regular basis in order to broaden and enrich her students’ experience of art and culture. Working with students, Anne has curated several exhibitions for the Indiana University Southeast Ronald Barr Gallery of art from Africa, the Pacific, and Native America.
