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Ellen Taylor Baird

Ellen Taylor Baird

Department of Art History (M/C 201)
311A Henry Hall
University of Illinois at Chicago
935 West Harrison Street
Chicago, IL 60607-7039

(312) 996-3342 | fax (312) 413-2460

email icon etbaird@uic.edu

Education

  • Ph.D., University of New Mexico, 1979
  • M.A., Tulane University, 1970
  • B.A., Emory University, 1968
  • Management Development Program, Harvard University, summer, 1988

Area of Specialization

Latin American Art History (Pre-Columbian through Colonial)

Professional Employment

University of Illinois at Chicago

  • 1992-now Professor (Art History)
  • 1999-00 Acting Director, Latin American Studies Program
  • 1992-97 Dean, College of Architecture and the Arts

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

  • 1987-91 Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Director, Summer Sessions
  • 1986-87 Acting Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
  • 1986 Interim Chair, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
  • 1983-85 Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
  • 1986-92 Associate Professor (Art History)
  • 1975-86 Assistant Professor (Art History)

University of New Mexico

  • 1974-75 Lecturer

Tulane University

  • 1973 Visiting Instructor, summer

University of Southern Colorado

  • 1970-72 Instructor

Grants Awarded

Research (since 1984)

  • 2006 Research Grant, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Institute for the Humanities, University of Illinois at Chicago. ”The Aztecs and the Making of Colonial Mexico;” for Nahuatl translation. 2006 exhibition at Newberry Library, Chicago, $1,200.
  • 2005 Research Grant, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Institute for the Humanities, University of Illinois at Chicago. ”The Aztecs and the Making of Colonial Mexico;” for research assistant. 2006 exhibition at Newberry Library, Chicago, $2,500.
  • 2002 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. “Guánica Central: Caribbean Company Town,” $10,000.
  • 2001 Campus Research Board, University of Illinois at Chicago. "Guánica Central, an architectural and socio-cultural study of a Puerto Rican sugar mill town," $3,000.

    2000 Summer Library Research Fellowship, Caribbean Resource Center, University of Puerto
    Rico-Rio Piedras, $2,000.

    1992 Research Grant-in-Aid; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Council.
  • 1984 Dumbarton Oaks Summer Research Seminar Fellowship: "Cultural Adjustments after the Decline of Teotihuacan, 700-900 A.D."; Center for Pre-Columbian Studies, Dumbarton Oaks; Washington, D.C.
  • 1984 Summer Research Grant-in-Aid; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Council.

Administrative

  • 1997-00 Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education, U.S. Department of Education; Design, Culture, and Community: A Model Program for Cross-Cultural Education in Architecture; principal investigator; Katerina Ruedi, co-p.i., $100,922 (3-year grant)
  • 1996-97 Illinois Higher Education Cooperative Act, Minority Achievement Grant, principal investigator, $50,000 (third year renewal)
  • 1996-97 U.S./Mexico Fund for Culture, Concurrent Studio on Affordable Housing with Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Azcapotzalco), School of Architecture, principal investigator, $12,780
  • 1995-96 Illinois Higher Education Cooperative Act, Minority Achievement Grant, principal investigator, $50,000 (second year renewal)
  • 1995-96 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, City Design Center conference grant, "Reinhabiting the Void: Designing Public Space for Everyday Life;" Roberta Feldman, Project Director, $7,500
  • 1995-96 U.S./Mexico Fund for Culture, Concurrent Studio on Affordable Housing with Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Azcapotzalco), School of Architecture, principal investigator, $22,220

    1995 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Planning Grant to establish the College's City Design Center; Roberta Feldman, Project Director, $10,000
  • 1994-95 Illinois Higher Education Cooperative Act, Minority Achievement Grant, principal investigator, $60,000

Publications

Book

1993 The Drawings of Sahagún's Primeros Memoriales: Structure and Style. University of Oklahoma Press.

Articles

2005 "The Reordering of Space in Sixteenth-Century Mexico: Some Implications of the Grid." In Painted Books and Indigenous Knowledge in Mesoamerica: Manuscript Studies in Honor of Mary Elizabeth Smith, pp. 289-300, Elizabeth H. Boone, ed., Middle American Research Institute monograph series, vol. 69. New Orleans: Tulane University.

2005 “The Latin American City.” In Scribner’s New Dictionary of the History of Ideas., vol. 1, pp. 351-352, Maryanne Cline Horowitz, editor in chief. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

2003 "Sahagún and the Representation of History." In Sahagun at 500: Essays on the Quincentenary of the Birth of Fr. Bernardino de Sahagun, OFM, pp. 117-136. Berkeley, CA: Academy of American Franciscan History.

1995 "Adaptation and Accommodation: The Transformation of the Pictorial Text in Sahagún's 16th Century Mexican Manuscripts." Phoebus 7:36-51. (Native Artists and Patrons in Colonial Latin America, Emily Umberger and Tom Cummins, eds.; Arizona State University, Tempe, 1995).

1995 "Estrellas y guerra en Cacaxtla." In Antología de Cacaxtla: vol. II, pp. 140-190, Ángel García Cook and Beatriz Leonor Merino Carrión, compilers; Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. Spanish translation of "Stars and Wars at Cacaxtla," 1989.

1989 "Stars and War at Cacaxtla." In Mesoamerica after the Decline of Teotihuacan, 700-900 A.D: pp. 105-122, Richard Diehl and Janet C. Berlo, eds.; Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., 1989.

1988 "The Artists of Sahagún's Primeros Memoriales: A Question of Identity." In The Life and Work of Bernardino de Sahagún: Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth-Century Aztec Mexico:
pp. 211-227, Jorge Klor de Alva, Eloise Quiñones Keber, H. B. Nicholson, eds.; Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, Albany, New York (University of Texas Press), 1988.

1988 "Sahagún's Primeros Memoriales and Codex Florentino: European Elements in the Illustrations." In Smoke and Mist: Mesoamerican Studies in Memory of Thelma Sullivan: pp. 15-40, Kathryn Josserand and Karen Dakin, eds.; British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, 1988.

1987 "Sahagún's Codex Florentino: The Enigmatic A." Ethnohistory. (1987) 34:288-306.

1985 "The Use of Naturalistic and Symbolic Color at Tula." In Painted Architecture and Polychrome Monumental Sculpture in Mesoamerica: pp. 115-144, Elizabeth Hill Boone, ed.; Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., 1985.

1983 "Text and Image in Sahagún's Primeros Memoriales." In Text and Image in Pre-Columbian Art: Essays on the Interrelationship of the Verbal and Visual Arts: pp. 155-179, J.C. Berlo, ed.; British Archaeological Reports, 1983.

In Progress

6 Articles on Codex Florentino (Bernardino de Sahagún), text completed; Primeros Memoriales (Bernardino de Sahagún); Historia de las Indias de Nueva España y Islas de Tierra Firma (Códice Dúran; Diego Durán); Codex Ramírez (Juan de Tovar); Historia de la benida de los Yndios apoblar a México (Juan de Tovar); and Relación de la Grana Cochinilla (Gonzalo Gómez de Cervantes). To be published in Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Ethnohistorical Sources, ed. Michel Oudijk and Maria Castañeda de la Paz (Austin: University of Texas Press). (In preparation.)

Book Reviews

2008 Review essay of Elizabeth Hill Boone, Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate (Austin:University of Texas Press, 2007). Art Bulletin vol. xc, no. 4 (2008), pp. 649-652.

2003 Online review of Samuel Y. Edgerton and Jorge Pérez de Lara, Theaters of Conversion: Religious Architecture and Indian Artists in Colonial Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001). CAA.Reviews, August 5, 2003.

Exhibit Curated

2006 “The Aztecs and the Making of Colonial Mexico.” Newberry Library, Chicago, September 30, 2006 through January 20, 2007. Co-curated with Cristián Roa-de-la-Carrera.

Online Digital Exhibit

“The Aztecs and the Making of Colonial Mexico.” Newberry Library, Chicago. Co-curated with Cristián Roa-de-la-Carrera. http://www.newberry.org/aztecexhibit/index_en.html

Scholarly Papers and Workshops Presented

2007 “Colonial Pictorial Texts.” “European and New World Forms of Knowledge in Colonial Spanish America, c. 1520-1800.” Mellon-funded residential workshop, joint project between the Newberry Library and the University of Warwick, UK, July 23-August 3, 2007.

2007 “The Virgin of Guadalupe.” “European and New World Forms of Knowledge in Colonial Spanish America, c. 1520-1800.” Mellon-funded residential workshop, joint project between the Newberry Library and the University of Warwick, UK, July 23-August 3, 2007.

2006 “Painting Indigenous History, Memory, and Identity in Colonial Mexico.” Planning meeting for “European and New World Forms of Knowledge in Colonial Spanish America c. 1520-1800,” workshop sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to be held at the Newberry Library (summer 2007) in conjunction with the University of Warwick, U.K.

2002 “Guánica Central : Constructing Colonialism.” Caribbean Studies Association; Nassau, Bahamas.

2002 “Guánica Central : A Caribbean Company Town.” Northeastern Illinois University International Conference on the Literatures and Cultures of the Caribbean: Where Choice Is Born: Caribbean Voices & Visions; Newberry Library, Chicago, IL.

1999 "Sahagún and the Representation of History." Symposium in Honor of the Quincentennial Anniversary of the Birth of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún; Newberry Library, Chicago, IL.

1998 "The Reordering of Space in Sixteenth-Century Mexico: Some Implications of the Grid." Tulane University Symposium in Honor of Mary Elizabeth Smith; New Orleans, LA.

1991 “The Illusion of Space and the Perception of History in Sahagún's Codex Florentino." International Congress of Americanists; New Orleans, LA.

1987 "Adaptation and Accommodation: The Transformation of the Pictorial Text in Sahagún's 16th Century Mexican Manuscripts." 16th Century Studies Meeting; Tempe, AZ.

1987 "The Death of the Sun: The Symbolic Orientation of Pyramid B, Tula, Hidalgo." Society of Architectural Historians; San Francisco, CA.

1987 "Blood and Bow Ties at Cacaxtla." College Art Association; Boston, MA.

1986 "Dressed to Kill: The Cacaxtla Warriors." Society for American Archaeology; New Orleans, LA.

1985 "Stars and War at Cacaxtla." Society for American Archaeology; Denver, CO.

1983 "The Processional Figures at Tula, Hidalgo." American Society for Ethnohistory; Albuquerque, NM.

1981 "The Use of Naturalistic and Symbolic Color at Tula." Symposium on Painted Architecture and Polychrome Monumental Sculpture in Mesoamerica. Dumbarton Oaks; Washington, D.C..

1981 "Pyramid B, Tula: A Re-evaluation of the Iconography." American Society for Ethnohistory; Colorado Springs, CO.

1981 "The Toltecs as 'Inheritors' of the Teotihuacan Tradition." Society for American Archaeology; San Diego, CA.

Courses Taught

University of Illinois at Chicago (1998-present):

  • World Survey of the History of Art, first semester (100-level lecture course)
  • Methods and Theory of Art History (200-level seminar for art history majors)
  • Pre-Columbian Art of Mesoamerica (200-level lecture course)
  • Latin American Colonial Art (200-level lecture course)
  • Art of Northern Renaissance (200-level lecture course)
  • Constructing Colonialism (400-level seminar, graduate and advanced undergraduate)
  • Mexican Manuscript Painting (400-level seminar, graduate and advanced undergraduate)
  • Early Colonial Mexico (400-level seminar, graduate and advanced undergraduate)
  • Historiography of the Visual Arts, Plato to Greenberg (500-level seminar, graduate majors)
  • Theorizing Indigenous Knowledge in Colonial Mexico (500-level seminar for university consortium)

Newberry Library (spring 2006):

 

Ph.D. Dissertation Committees (chair)

Amy Galpin, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago (in progress), “Fray Diego Valadés, Rhetorica Christiana, the Illustrations”

Clare Kunny, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago (in progress), “Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and Emperor Charles V: Aesthetic Interchange between Spain and Mexico”

Ph.D. Dissertation Committees (member/reader)

Catherine Burdick, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago (in progress), “Text and Image in Classic Maya Sculpture”

Diana Magaloni Kerpel, Art History, Yale University, Ph.D. 2004, “Images of the Beginning: The Painted Story of the Conquest in Book XII of the Florentine Codex”

M.A. Thesis Committees (member/reader)

Rebecca Beachy, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago, MA 2009, “Looking at Columbine”

Valerie Rangel, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago MA 2009, “Archigram: Tailoring the Future”

Candice Weber, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago (in progress), “Indian Logic: Postcolonialism, Contemporary Native American Art, and the Work of James Luna”

Kristina Dziedzic Wright, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago, MA 2005, “”Ethnic Identities and Cultural Commoditization in the Jua Kali Art World of Lamu, Kenya”

Morgan Mills, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago, MA 2004, “Architecture of Identity: Nationalism in Meiji Period Japan (1868-1912)”

Elizabeth D. Olton, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago, MA 1999, “The Murals from Tulum Structures 5 and 16: Portrait of late Post-Classic Maya Cosmology”

Professional Organizations

Association for Latin American Art
1988-1990 President
1987-1988 Vice President
1987-1990 Newsletter, Editor
Caribbean Studies Association
College Art Association
2000-2002 President
2000-2004 CAA delegate to American Council of Learned Societies
2000-2003 CAA delegate to National Council for Art History
1999-2000 Vice President, Committees
1998-1999 Secretary
1996-2003 Board of Directors
1998-2003 Executive Committee
1998-2003 Finance and Budget Committee
1998-2000 Strategic Planning Core Committee
1998-2000 Working Group on Committees, Chair
1999-2000 Handbook Subcommittee, Chair
1996-1999 Education Committee, Co-Chair and Chair
1999 EDUCAUSE Award Committee, Chair
1996-1998 Development Committee
1996-2000 Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award Committee
Chair, 1999-2000
Mid-America College Art Association
1976 Board of Directors
Midwest Art History Society
1998 Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting Conference Chair
1986 Co-Editor, Newsletter, January
Midwest Mesoamericanists
1999 Co-organizer of annual meeting
National Committee for the History of Art
2000-2002 Member
Prairie Visions: The Nebraska Consortium for Discipline-Based Art Education
1990-1992 Member, Development Council
1989 Symposium participant, January-February
Society for American Archaeology
American Society for Ethnohistory

Administrative

American Association for Higher Education, 1990-97
International Council of Fine Arts Deans, 1992-97
1996-97 Board of Directors
1995 Nominating Committee

Board Memberships

  • 1992-97 Bright New City (urban design forum), Chicago
    Michael Cullen Lecture, Chair, 1996
    Peter Blake Lecture, Chair, 1995
  • 1992-97 Hull House Museum, Chicago
  • 1994-97 Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation, Chicago
  • 1995-97 Newhouse Architecture Competition Committee, Chicago Architecture Foundation, Program Committee
  • 1993-95 Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design
  • 1984-1988 Sheldon Film Theater, Lincoln, NE, Co-Chair, Publicity Committee, 1984-86;Liaison with Nebraska Art Association, 1986-1988; Nominating Committee, 1985

Professional service

Accreditation and academic program reviews

  • 2003 The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Doctoral Program in Art History
  • 1999 Wayne State University, Department of Art and Art History
  • 1997 University of Cincinnati, Graduate Program in Art History
  • 1997 Rochester Institute of Technology, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Higher Education

Co-chair and co-organizer of scholarly sessions

  • 1997 Co-chair of 2 sessions on technology and pedagogy: "The Magic Classroom I: The Promise" and "The Magic Classroom II: Making it Happen." College Art Association Annual Meeting; New York; February.
  • 1991 "Early Colonial Arts and Christian Morality in the Americas: Reading between the Lines." International Congress of Americanists; New Orleans, LA; July.
  • 1983 "Politics and Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica." American Society for Ethnohistory; Albuquerque, New Mexico; November.

Competition juror

  • 1994 Good Design, Jury Chair, Chicago Athenaeum
  • 1994 Newhouse Architecture Competition, Chicago
  • 1993 New Chicago Architecture Competition, Chicago Athenaeum
    Design Diaspora: Black Architects and International Architecture, Chicago
    Athenaeum
  • 1985 Student Film Awards (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
    Regional Screening Committee, Chicago
  • 1984, 86, Preliminary Regional Screening Committee, Lincoln, NE
    87

Conferences organized

  • 1998 Midwest Art History Society, Twenty-fifth Annual Conference Chair
  • 1999 Midwest Mesoamericanists, Co-organizer of annual meeting
  • 1999 Symposium for Quincentenary of fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s birth, Newberry Library, Chicago; Co-organizer

Discussant

  • 2004 “Encountering the Self in Colonial Mexico.” American Society for Ethnohistory, Chicago, November.

Educational Study Tour

  • 1999 Architectural Study Tour of Havana and Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, Co-organizer, January.

Grant referee

  • American Council of Learned Societies
  • 1990 Fellowship Program, prescreener (panels 3 and 4)
  • 1992, 94 Grant-in-Aid Program, panelist

Moderator

  • 1993 "Spreebogen International Competition, new urban design ideas for the city of Berlin," Chicago Athenaeum (panel discussion by five Chicago architecture offices who submitted competition entries)

Museum Consultant

  • Boys’ Town Museum (Omaha)
  • Joslyn Museum (Omaha)

Publication referee

  • Ancient Mesoamerica (scholarly journal)
  • Latin American Antiquity (scholarly journal)
  • Dumbarton Oaks publications
  • Getty Grant Program publications
  • Thames and Hudson Publishers
  • University of Colorado Press
  • University of New Mexico Press

Public Lectures and Workshops (since 1980)

“The Will of Don Diego Damián: An Aztec (Nahua) Family in Colonial Mexico, 1576.” Newberry Library, Chicago. January and April 2009.

“Juliana Tlaco vs Pedronilla Francisca Tenuch: A Nahua Family Contests a Will.” Aztecs/Nahua/Mexicans: Living Documents Workshop. Newberry Library, Chicago. October2007.

“Maps in Colonial Mexico.” Chicago Teachers as Scholars Program, Newberry Library, Chicago. Two day lecture/workshop co-taught with Cristián Roa-de-la-Carrera. December, 2006.

“The Aztecs: Writing Without Words.” The Newberry Teachers’ Consortium, Newberry Library, Chicago. Half-day lecture/workshop. November, 2006; December 2006.

"The Power of the Past and Dreams of the Future: Archaeology and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Mexico." The Art Institute of Chicago, October, 2002; Lake Forest College, November, 2002.

“Mesoamerica: Still Mysterious.” Workshop for Latin American Studies faculty, Lake Forest College, February 1999.

"The Power of the Past and Dreams of the Future: Nineteenth Century Mexico." Newberry Library and Harold Washington Library, Chicago, May 1996.

"Academic Innovations: UIC's Great Cities Initiative." Women in Planning and Development, Chicago, February 27, 1995.

"Painted Walls of Ancient Mexico: Teotihuacan, Bonampak, Cacaxtla." The Art Institute of Chicago, March 15, 1994

"Painted Walls of Ancient Mexico: Teotihuacan, Bonampak, Cacaxtla." Arquitectos (organization of Latino architects, Chicago), March 31, 1994.

"The Drawings of Sahagún's Sixteenth-Century Manuscripts: A Colonial View of Preconquest Mexico." Chicago Latin American Colloquium (University of Chicago, Center for Latin American Studies), February 3, 1994.

"The Black and the Red: The Book in Ancient Mexico." The Art Institute of Chicago, July 1993 (lecture/workshop).

"Space and the Perception of History in Colonial Mexico." The Art Institute of Chicago, May 1993.

"Space, Time, and the Perception of History: Sixteenth Century Mexico." Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, November 1992.

"Art History and Auto Mechanics." Community College Conference, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, April 1987.

"Classic Maya Treasures." University of Nebraska-Lincoln, August 1986.

"`Reading' Art: Influences and Connections." Nebraska Art Association, Lincoln, February 1981.

numerous talks to university students, prospective students, scholarship students, alumni, professional and civic organizations, etc.

Committee and administrative positions

  • University of Illinois at Chicago, Campus-Wide Committees
    2004-present Renaissance Studies Committee
    1997 Responsibility Centered Management and Budgeting
    1997 Search Committee, Campus Police Chief
    1995-97 UIC Public Art Committee, Chair
    1994-95 Search Committee, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chair
    1993-94 Search Committee, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
    1992-93 Summer Session Committee, Chair
  • Department of Art History Committees
    2005-2009 Director of Graduate Studies, Graduate Program Committee.
    member: 2003-2004, 2001,1998-2000
    2000-2004 Executive/Personnel Committee
    2001-2004 Scholarship and Awards Committee, Chair
    member (1998-2004)
    1999-2001 Curriculum Committee, Chair
  • University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Campus-Wide Committees
    1991-92 Faculty Women's Caucus, Co-Chair (and co-founder)
    1991-92 Faculty Senate Committee on Committees
    1991-92 International Affairs Newsletter, Editorial Advisory Board
  • College of Arts and Sciences, College-Wide Committees
    1983 Great Plains Symposium Committee, fall
    1980-83 Executive Committee
    1979-88 University Studies Committee
    1979-81 Faculty Fellowships Committee, Chair, l980
    1975-81 Latin American Studies Committee
  • Department of Art Committees
    1977-79, 91-92 Executive Committee
    1978, 85-87 Art History Search Committees, Chair, l986-87
    1985-88 Graduate Committee
    1985-86 Woods Travel committee
    1982-84 Art Department Chair Search Committee, Chair, l983-84
    1982-84 Curriculum Committee
    1981 Academic Program Review Sub-Committee, Co-Chair
    1975-83 Coordinator of Art History Survey Courses
    1975-88 Grading Appeals Committee

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