salem mekuria

BIO / FILMOGRAPHY

SALEM MEKURIA is the Luella LaMer Professor of Women’s Studies in the Art Department at Wellesley College. She is also an independent writer, producer, director, videographer, and a video installation artist. Her award winning documentary films and video installations feature Ethiopian subjects and have been shown internationally. Among the numerous honors she has received are: a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, 2005-06; Fulbright Scholar award, 2003-04; The New England Media Fellowship, 2001; the Rockefeller Foundation's Intercultural Media Fellowship, 1995; Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest International Artists Residency Fellowship in 1993; a fellowship at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, Harvard University, 1990-92; the Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award in 1991.

Her works include:
"SQUARE STORIES" (2010) Triptych Video Installation re-members Maskal Square, a massive concrete expanse and the largest public space in Addis Ababa, as a site of commemoration, offering it as a way of witnessing multiple, fragmentary histories of Ethiopia’s present and recent past.
"IMAGinING TOBIA" (2006, 2007) Triptych Video Installations exploring Ethiopian cultural and physical landscapes.
"RUPTURES: A Many-Sided Story" (2003) a Triptych Video Installation Exhibited at the 50th. Venice Biennale, Italy.
"YE WONZ MAIBEL" (DELUGE) (1997) a one hour personal essay on history, conflict, loss and reconciliation. Told through a first person narrative it explores the momentous events which took place in Ethiopia between 1974 and 1991.
"SIDET: Forced Exile" (1991) a one hour film documentary portrait of three Ethiopian/Eritrean refugee women in the Sudan. It was filmed on location in the Sudan and was completed in 1991.
"AS I REMEMBER IT", A Portrait of Dorothy West (1991) is a 56 minutes portrait of the late Harlem Renaissance writer, Dorothy West. It was broadcast on WGBH Public Television in Boston in September, 1991.
"OUR PLACE IN THE SUN" (1988) a 30 minutes video portrait of the Black community on Martha's Vineyard Island. Broadcast on WGBH-TV in February, 1988, and was nominated for an Emmy.

FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University (‘05-‘06); Fulbright Fellowship (’03-‘04); New England Media Fellowship Award ('01); Faculty Awards, Wellesley College (‘93, ‘94, ’95, ’96, ’98, ‘99, '00, ’01, ‘02); the LEF Foundation (’97, ’00, ’03); National Black Programming Consortium, CPB (‘93, ‘95, ‘96); Rockefeller Foundation, Intercultural Media Fellowship (‘95); Lila Wallace-- Readers Digest International Artists Residency Program (‘93); Travel Grant, Artists International. (‘92); New England Regional Film and Video Fellowship (‘88, ‘92); Channel 4-TV, UK (‘89, ‘92, ‘94); Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College, Harvard Univ. (‘90-‘92); The Massachusetts Artists Foundation (‘91); The Women's Project (‘90); United Nations Development Program for Women (‘90); The Anson Phelps Institute, New York, NY (‘88-‘89); John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (‘89); United Nations High Commission for Refugees (‘89); Global Fund for Women (‘89); WDR-TV, Germany (‘89); Paul Robeson Fund (‘89); Foundation for a Compassionate Society (‘89); Schlesinger Research Library (‘89); Massachusetts Council for the Arts (‘88); Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities (‘88); Massachusetts Arts Lottery (‘88).