Lynne Larsen, Ph.D.

Lynne Ellsworth Larsen received her MA and PhD in Art History from the University of Iowa. She loves teaching a wide range of topics, from the Arts of Africa and the Americas to Global Contemporary art and Architecture. Her research is grounded in African architecture, global contemporary art, post-colonial identity, and feminism. Her book, Dahomey’s Royal Architecture: An Earthen Record of Construction, Subjugation, and Reclamation traces the Royal Palace of Dahomey, in Abomey, Benin throughout its history. She is now working on a book about the domestic architecture of Abomey, Benin.

Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVf8Ai9pm5M

PhD – University of Iowa, African Art History (Minors in Modern/Contemporary Art and Asian Art), 2014.

MA – University of Iowa, African, Art History, 2007.

BA – Brigham Young University, Humanities, English Emphasis, Art History Minor, 2003.

Lynne Ellsworth Larsen’s research interests are grounded in African architecture, post-colonial identity, and feminism. She has published with Museum International and contributed a chapters to The Routledge Companion to Black Women’s Cultural Histories and Routledge’s Radical Refuge: Black Women’s Claims to Home, Safe Space, and Community Building. Her book, Dahomey’s Royal Architecture: An Earthen Record of Construction, Subjugation, and Reclamation was published in 2023. Her current book project examines the physical and religious aspects of the large, domestic, architectural compounds known as collectivities, which are located in West Africa’s city of Abomey.

Book

Dahomey’s Royal Architecture: An Earthen Record of Construction, Subjugation, and Reclamation, Routledge Research in Architectural History Series, Routledge, 2023.

Book Chapters

“Enigma and Allegory in the Art of Mutu, Monteiro, and Muluneh” for Decolonizing Environmental Imaginaries: Climate, Heritage, and the Postcolonial South, in the Brill book series Culture-Environment-Society: Humanities and Beyond, 2027 – forthcoming.

“Women in the Palace: Power Structures and Gendered Space in Pre-colonial Dahomey” for Radical Refuge: Black Women’s Claims to Home, Safe Space, and Community Building, in the Routledge book series on “Subversive Histories, Feminist Futures,” with a projected publication date of late 2026/early 2027 – forthcoming.

“Wives and Warriors: The Royal Women of Dahomey as Representatives of the Kingdom.” for The Routledge Companion to Black Women’s Cultural Histories, Routledge, 2021.

“The Collectivities of Abomey.” In Architectural Guide: Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Philipp Meuser with Adil Dalbai and Ingrid Stegmann, 426-429. DOM publishers, 2021.

Articles

“The Historic Museum of Abomey: Exhibiting Colonial Power and Post-colonial Identity.” Museum International 69, no. 275-276 (2017): 108-117.

“City of Women: Gendered Space in the Pre-colonial Palace of Dahomey.” University of Toronto Art Journal vol. 2 (2009).

Sainsbury Research Unit’s Visiting Fellow, University of East Anglia, 2025

Smithsonian Post-doctoral Fellow, National Museum of African Art, 2022

Frederick Douglass Institute’s Pre-doctoral Fellow, University of Rochester, 2013 -14

Fulbright U.S. Student Fellow, Abomey, Benin, 2012-13.

Courses Taugt:

• Arts of Africa
• Art of the Americas
• Global Contemporary Art
• African-American Art
• Art since 1945
• Art and Architecture Study Tour (Study Abroad in Berlin)
• Art and Architecture Study Tour (Study in Washington, D.C.)
• Creative Arts I (Honors course team taught with Music and Theater)
• World Art Survey II
• World Art Survey III
• Nonwestern Art Survey
• Survey II (Western Art from Renaissance to Contemporary)
• Introduction to the Visual Arts
• Introduction to Architecture

Arts Council of the African Studies Association

Society of Architectural Historians

• Art History Coordinator
• Curriculum and Assessment Committees
• Faculty Affairs Committee
• Donaghey Scholar’s Policy Council