In Conversation: Stephen Hamilton
Explore the powerful connections between art, ancestry, and spiritual tradition in this compelling virtual program. Join artist Stephen Hamilton for a virtual conversation with Dr. Kyrah Malika Daniels, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. The two will discuss Hamilton’s multimedia work, which he has described as a “conceptual and visual bridge between the ancient and modern worlds.” Informed by Yorùbá artistic techniques and the close study of West and Central African religious traditions—including the Kongo cosmogram Dikenga, which maps the human life cycle—Hamilton’s work incorporates meticulous research, skillful technique, and spiritual practice, embodying narratives that are both personal and collective.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Kyrah Malika Daniels is Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Her research centers on African heritage religions, sacred arts, religious initiation and conversion, and ritual healing traditions in the Black Atlantic. Her first book, Art of the Healing Gods (Duke University Press, 2026), is a comparative religion project that examines sacred art objects used in Haitian and Congolese healing ceremonies. Deeply invested in the digital humanities, she curates a student-led research platform called Africana Art Scholars and participates in initiatives like the UCLA Fowler Museum’s Vital Matters series. Her work has been published in the Journal of Africana Religions, the Journal of Haitian Studies, and the Journal for the American Academy of Religion. Daniels currently serves as Vice President for KOSANBA, the Scholarly Association for the Study of Haitian Vodou , and as a Leadership Council Member for the African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association.
Stephen Hamilton (b. 1987) is a mixed-media artist, researcher, and arts educator living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. He is currently a Ph.D candidate in Harvard's AAAS Program focusing on African Studies and African History. Hamilton graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2009 with a focus on illustration. Thanks to a travel grant from Arts Connect International, he studied Yoruba weaving, dyeing, and woodcarving at the Nike Centers for Art and Culture in Osogbo and Ogidi Ijumu, Nigeria. He also served as an Assistant Professor in the Illustration Department of Massachusetts College of Art and Design from 2016 to 2021. Hamilton has worked on temporary site-specific large-scale mixed-media textile and sculpture installations for the past seven years. These include Under the Spider's Web (2025), currently installed at Roxbury Community College in Boston, MA, as part of the Boston Public Art Triennial. The Founder's Project (2018–2019) previously located at the Bruce C. Bolling Building, and Stitched Into Memory (2017) previously located at Atlantic Wharf, also in Boston, MA. Hamilton’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Rose Museum at Brandeis University, and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.
This program is held in conjunction with the exhibition, Fabricated Imaginaries: Crafting Art, August 20, 2025–May 31, 2026, and is co-sponored by our partners at Brandeis University: the Department of African and African American Studies.