Ruth Phillips


Ruth B. Phillips is a Canadian art historian and curator who specializes in North American aboriginal art. She is an author of numerous books and articles on the subjects of Indigenous studies, anthropology/archaeology, political science, international studies, public policy, Canadian studies, and cultural studies. She received her doctorate in African art history in 1979 from the University of London at the School of Oriental and African Art. Her dissertation was about Mende women in Sierra Leone that performed masquerades. She became a professor at Carleton University in 1979. Ruth Phillips became a Director of University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver in 1997, where she, with three First Nations partner communities, and museum staff created a successful expansion and renewal plan for a $41 million grant to the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the British Columbia Knowledge Foundation, and the University of British Columbia.
In 2005, Phillips, Heidi Bohaker, First Nations partners, and many other scholars co-founded - The Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts & Cultures. Phillips organized many grants, and supervised the team of GRASAC research assistants in her time as the Director. Phillips holds the Canada Research Chair in Modern Culture at Carleton University.
September 28, 2018, she gave a guest lecture at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the lecture focused on the anthropology paradigm, taking examples from early 20th century anthropologists Edward Sapir and Frank Speck, and the Museum of the American Indian.

Publications