Department of Art History

Rachel Kabukala is a PhD student whose research centers around the artistic production of Kuba women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She completed her B.A. at St. Olaf College, where she double majored in Studio Art and Education, and completed minors in African Studies, and American Racial and Multicultural Studies. She previously served as Curatorial Assistant for African Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and has worked on multiple exhibitions during her time as a graduate student. In 2020, she curated Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past & Present at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University. In 2022, Rachel presented the first solo exhibition of the Kinshasa-based artist collective Kongo Astronauts titled Congo Gravitational Waves // A Metadigital & Tantalean Tale at the University of North Texas CVAD Galleries. Additionally, she is collaborating with the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art to research a recent acquisition of works from the collection of the Kuba royal family. Rachel is the recipient of the Tanner-Opperman Fellowship in African Art History.