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The MSU Museum is starting an 18-month renovation project on July 1, 2024. During the temporary building closure, the Museum will continue facilitating and creating experiences at the nexus of the arts, sciences, cultures, and technologies.

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Contact Information:
(517) 355-2370
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Julian C. Chambliss

Val Berryman Curator of History

Professor of English
Department of English/History
Core Faculty, Consortium for Critical Diversity in Digital Age Research (CEDAR)

Julian C. Chambliss is the Val Berryman Curator of History at the Michigan State University Museum and Professor of English with a joint appointment in History at Michigan State University. In addition, he is a core participant in the MSU College of Arts & Letters’ Consortium for Critical Diversity in a Digital Age Research (CEDAR). His research interests focus on the race, identity, and power in real and imagined urban spaces. His recent academic writing has appeared in Frieze, Rhetoric Review, Boston Review, Florida Historical Quarterly, Journal of Urban History and Studies in American. An interdisciplinary scholar he has designed museum exhibitions, curated art shows, and created public digital history projects that trace community, identity, and power in the American South. In addition, he has published opinion and commentary in popular forums such as the Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio (NPR), and Orlando Sentinel.

Selected Exhibitions

  • “Take Off! Comic Artists from the Great White North.” In conjunction with the 2019 MSU Comics Forum, Co-Curator, Michigan State University Main Library, East Lansing, MI, January 14th-February 24th.
  • “Art in Odd Places Orlando” Exhibition, November 2017, Co-curator, Downtown Arts District, Orlando, Florida.
  • “AfroFantastic: Black Imagination and Agency in the American Experience,” Exhibition, January-April 2017, Curator, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.
  • “Beyond the Color Line,” Public History Exhibition, February-March 2017, Curator, Orlando City Hall Rotunda, Orlando, Florida.
  • “Future Bear,” 2014 Faculty Exhibition, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL (March-August 2014).
  • “Transit Interpretation Project [TrIP],” Downtown Development Board Office Gallery, Orlando, Florida (June 2014).
  • “Project Mosaic: Space and Place in the Construction of Identity,” Poster and Photograph Exhibition, January 2013, Curator, Jacksonville Main Library. Jacksonville, Florida.

Selected Publications

  • Walter Greason and Julian Chambliss, Cities Imagined: The African Diaspora in Media and History, 1st edition (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2018).
  • Julian C. Chambliss, William L. Svitavsky, and Daniel Fandino, Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural and Geopolitical Domains (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2018).
  • Julian C. Chambliss, Thomas Donaldson, and William Svitavsky, eds., Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013).

Selected Public/Digital Humanities Projects

Critical Fanscape
Critical Fanscape is a collaborative digital project that utilize undergraduate collaborators to explore the MSU Library Comics Art Collection “Publication about Comics” subset. This project emphasizes digital recovery and understanding the critical cultural context linked to archive practice. http://bit.ly/CriticalFan

Advocate Recovered
Advocate Recovered is a digital recovery project focused on collecting and transcribing the fragment of the Winter Park Advocate, an African American newspaper published in Winter Park, Florida in the 1890s.

Reframing History
Reframing History is produced and hosted by Julian C. Chambliss and explores how historical narratives shape our perceptions of contemporary culture.

Every Tongue Got to Confess Podcast
Every Tongue Got to Confess is produced by the University of Central Florida Department of History, Consortium for Critical Diversity in a Digital Age Research (CEDAR), and the Association to Preserve Eatonville Community to explore issues linked to communities of color in the United States.