Chancellor’s Biography

Salah M. Hassan

Chancellor, Global Studies University

Salah M. Hassan is the Chancellor of Global Studies University (GSU) and Dean of The Africa Institute, Sharjah. He has been leading The Africa Institute since its establishment in 2018, and in 2023, he assumed his dual roles as Chancellor of GSU and Dean of The Africa Institute, underscoring his pivotal role in shaping the academic and cultural vision of these institutions.

In addition to his roles in Sharjah, Hassan is a Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Africana Studies at Cornell University, where he also serves as the Director of the Institute for Comparative Modernities (ICM) and a Professor of Art History and Visual Culture. His academic and curatorial expertise spans several decades, contributing significantly to the fields of Africana studies and contemporary African art.

Hassan’s academic career includes serving as the Madeleine Haas Russell Professor at Brandeis University in the Departments of African and Afro-American Studies and Fine Arts (2016-2018). He is an accomplished art critic, curator, and editor, known for co-founding and editing Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (Duke University Press). He serves on the editorial advisory boards of Atlantica, Journal of Curatorial Studies, and the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and has been a consulting editor for African Arts.

As a scholar, Hassan has authored, edited, and co-edited numerous books, including Darfur and the Crisis of Governance: A Critical Reader (2009), Diaspora, Memory, Place (2008), and Ibrahim El Salahi: A Visionary Modernist (2012). He has contributed essays to various journals, anthologies, and exhibition catalogues, and guest-edited a special issue of SAQ: South Atlantic Quarterly titled African Modernism (2010).

His curatorial work includes prestigious international exhibitions such as Authentic/Ex-Centric at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), Unpacking Europe in Rotterdam (2001-02), and 3×3: Three Artists/Three Projects at Dak’Art (2004). More recently, he curated Kamala Ibrahim Ishag: States of Oneness at the Serpentine South, London (2023) and Gavin Jantjes: To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970–2023 at the Sharjah Art Foundation (2023). His exhibitions for the Sharjah Art Foundation include The Khartoum School: The Making of the Modern Art Movement in Sudan, 1945-2016 (2016-2017) and When Art Becomes Liberty: The Egyptian Surrealists (1938–1965) (2016).

Hassan’s contributions to the field have been recognized with several grants and fellowships, including the J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship and grants from the Sharjah Art Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation, and Prince Claus Fund. In 2021, he was honored as the Distinguished Professor by the College Art Association (CAA), the oldest and largest scholarly organization for history and criticism of the visual arts.