David Doris

David T. Doris is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan with affiliations in the Department of the History of Art, the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, and the Stamps School of Art & Design. His research focuses on African art and visual culture, particularly Yoruba art across southwestern Nigeria and the diaspora.

• African Art
• Visual Culture
• Cross-Cultural Interpretation
• Anti-Aesthetic Theory

In 2011, he published the book Vigilant Things, which explores the moral, ethical, and aesthetic roles of discarded objects in Yoruba culture. The work received the prestigious Melville J. Herskovits Award in 2012. Currently, he is investigating the iconography of the Yoruba Ogboni Society, analyzing how its visual elements obscure and reveal truths about power dynamics.

• Melville J. Herskovits Award (2012)