essayS
“Art of Not Forgetting/El Arte de No Olvidar,” in Califas: El Arte de la zona fronteriza México-Estados Unidos/Art of the US-Mexico Borderlands, eds. Michael Dear and Ronald Rael (Richmond, California: Richmond Art Center, 2018), 38-45
"Entrevista com Richard Cándida Smith: Por uma História Intelectual entre as Américas," Revista Poder & Cultura Vol. 4, no. 8 (2017), 174-213
“Art Is a Confrontation with a ‘Me’ That Needs Improving: The Beginnings of the Noah Purifoy Foundation,” VOCA Journal (November 2016)
“Multiple Theoretical Directions: The Noah Purifoy Foundation Today, Richard Cándida Smith with Joe Lewis,” VOCA Journal (November 2016)
“Introduction,” The Convergence: Painted Poetry and Painterly Poetics, an Ekphrastic Notion, vol. 2 (Amsterdam: ISSUU, 2016), 6-9
“Ekphrasis, after Gerrit Joost de Jonghe—The Art of Drawing with Water,” in The Convergence: Painted Poetry and Painterly Poetics, an Ekphrastic Notion, vol. 2 (Amsterdam: ISSUU, 2016), 50-58
“United States,” in The Fin-de-Siècle World, ed. Michael Saler (New York: Routledge, 2014), 198-212
“Fotografia de Boa Vizinhança: Uma Norte-Americana no Brasil, 1941-1942,” Cadernos do CEOM, Centro de Memória do Oeste de Santa Catarina: Patrimônio, Memória e Identidade no. 40 (2014), 71-84
“An Era of Grand Ambitions: Sam Rodia and California Modernism,” in Sabato Rodia’s Towers in Watts: Art, Migrations, Development, ed. Luisa Del Giudice (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), 103-107
“História Intelectual nos Estados Unidos: Resenha Pessoal,” Cadernos do CEOM, Centro de Memória do Oeste de Santa Catarina: Patrimônio, Memória e Identidade 26, no. 38 (2013), 83-95
“Érico Veríssimo, a Brazilian Cultural Ambassador in the United States,” Tempo 19, no. 34 (2013), 147-173
“On Quality: Curators at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, (1935-2010),” in Oral History in the Visual Arts, eds. Linda Sandino and Matthew Partington (London: Bloomsbury, 2013), 67-76
“A Throw of the Dice”: Between Structure and Indeterminacy,” in Pairing of Polarities: The Life and Art of Sonya Rapoport, eds. Terri Cohn and Anu Vikram (Berkeley: Heyday Press, 2012), 24-36
“História oral na historiografia: Autoria na História,” in Memória e Diálogo: Escutas da Zona Leste, Visões sobre a História Oral, eds., Ricardo Santhiago and Valéria Barbosa de Magalhães (São Paulo: Letra e Voz, 2011), 161-172
“What Is It That University-Based Oral History Can Do?” in The Oxford Handbook to Oral History, ed. Donald Ritchie (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 417-428
“‘Romper lo que está resquebrajado’: 1968 in the United States of America,” Cuadernos de Historia Contemporánea (Madrid), 31 (2009), 135-148
“Learning from Watts Towers: Assemblage and Community-Based Art in California,” in Oral History (UK), 37 no. 2 (2009), 51-58
“1955: Allen Ginsberg Performs ‘Howl’ at the Six Gallery in San Francisco,” in The New Literary History of America, eds., Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009)
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Self and Community,” in Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Feminist as Thinker: A Reader in Documents and Essays, eds. Ellen DuBois and Richard Cándida Smith (New York: New York University Press, 2007), 66-81
“Postwar Modern Art and California’s Progressive Legacies,” Rethinking History 11 (2007), 103-124, theme issue on California
“Publishing Oral History: Oral Exchange and Print Culture,” in The Research Handbook for Oral History, eds. Thomas L. Charlton, Lois E. Myers, and Rebecca Sharpless (Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press, 2006), 411-424
“Reverencing the Mortal: Assemblage Art as Prophetic Protest in Post-World War II California,” in Betye Saar: Extending the Frozen Moment, ed. Sean Ulmer (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 38-51
“Vectors of Emergence, Lines of Descent,” in Jay DeFeo and ‘The Rose’, ed. Jane Green and Leah Levy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 127-148
“Where Am I at Home?: The Interplay of National, Local, and Aesthetic Space,” in Postborder City: Cultural Spaces of Bajalta California, eds. Michael Dear and Gustavo LeClerc (New York: Routledge, 2003), 217-248
“The Light Foot Hears You and the Brightness Begins: Encountering Mortality in Jay Defeo’s Last Paintings,” Transit Circle: Revista Brasileira de Estudos Amercanos 2, Nov Série (2003), 70-95
“Circuitos de subjetividade: História oral e o objeto de arte,” Estudos Históricos no. 30 (2003), 76-90
“Oral History Research at University of California, Berkeley,” História Oral 6 (2003), 45-54
“Les Gammes: Making Visible the Representative Modern Man,” in Art and the Performance of Memory: Sounds and Gestures of Recollection, ed. Richard Cándida Smith (London: Routledge, 2002), 202-214
“The Other Side of Meaning: George Kubler on the Object as Historical Source,” Intellectual History Newsletter, 23 (2001), 85-95
“Analytic Strategies for Oral History Interviews,” in Handbook of Interview Research, eds. Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 2001), 711-732; translated into Chinese for Historical Quarterly, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, China
“L’Antiaméricanisme en Amérique,” Le Monde des débats, no. 9 (December 1999), expanded version in Les Antiaméricanismes, ed. Tom Bishop (New York: Center for French Civilization and Culture, New York University, 2001), 129-142
“Southern California,” in Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History, eds. Mary Kupiec Cayton and Peter W. Williams (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001), 2:641-653
“Junk into Art: Noah Purifoy’s Assemblage of Experience,” in Noah Purifoy: Outside and in the Open, ed. Lizzetta Le-Falle-Collins (Los Angeles: California African-American Museum, 1997), 63-86
“The Elusive Quest of the Moderns,” in On the Edge of America: Modernist Art in California, ed. Paul J. Karlstrom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 21-40
“Frank Lloyd Wright as Educator: The Taliesin Fellowship Program, 1932-1959,” in Architecture and the Sites of History, ed. David Dunster and Iain Borden (London: Butterworths, 1995), 227-242
“Simon Rodia,” in American National Biography, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (Cary, North Carolina: Oxford University Press), 1999
“Modern Art and Oral History in the United States: A Revolution Remembered,” Journal of American History 78 (September 1991), 598-606
“Imitation and Invention: Tradition and the Avant-Garde in the Work of Two Jewish Émigré American Artists,” International Journal of Oral History 10 (November 1989)
“Exquisite Corpse: The Sense of the Past in Oral History Interviews with California Artists,” Oral History Review 17 (Spring 1989), 1-38
“Assemblage: Poetry and Narration,” (Palos Verdes: Palos Verdes Art Center, 1988), exhibition catalog
“What Is ‘Popular’ Music?” — introduction to the catalog of the Pia Gilbert Archives, Music Library, UCLA, 1987
“Axis Mundi,” in Firaskew (Los Angeles: Angel’s Gate Gallery, 1986), introduction to the catalog of the work of Gordon Wagner
Unpublished Papers and/or Presentations (partial)
"Can There Be a History of Perception?" University of California Working Group on Perception and Embodiment, Department of Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles, March 1, 2014
“Chamado ao dever: Uma história dos americanos e da Segunda Guerra Mundial,” Centro de Memória, Unicamp, Campinas, Brazil, September 11, 2013
“Turning towards Visual and Material Culture: Three British Art Historians on the Shape of their Careers,” Association of Art Historians annual meeting, University of Reading, April 13, 2013
“Oral History and Life Narratives in the Understanding of Art Objects,” International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art, Guggenheim Museum, New York City, March 7, 2013; Getty Center, Los Angeles, April 25, 2013
“Genevieve Naylor, Fotógrafa Norte-Americana no Brasil, 1941-1942: Como Interpretar Intercâmbio Cultural da Boa Vizinhança,” keynote address at conference, LABHOI Trinta Anos, Department of History, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brazil, August 29, 2012
“Oral History and Reconstructing the Artist’s Working Process,” International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C., April 20, 2012
“Oral History, the Archive, and the Plastic Arts,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, February 15, 2012
“Vectors of Postmodernism,” Postmodern Legacy Study Day, Victoria and Albert Museum, October 29, 2011
“A History of Subjectivity?: Working Across Sources,” Narrative Working Group, University of East London, November 1, 2011
“California Artists and Community,” Chelsea College of Art and Design, October 26, 2011
“Oral History as a Source in the History of Museums,” Victoria and Albert Museum, October 25, 2011
“The Good Neighbor Policy and the Market for Latin American Authors in the United States,” keynote address to the 2011 meeting of the International Association of American Studies, Rio de Janeiro, July 27, 2011
“Sam Rodia and California Modernism,” Symposium on the Watts Towers, University of California, Los Angeles, October 23, 2010
“O Panamericanismo contra os Obstáculos ao Tradução: Érico Veríssimo nos Estados Unidos,” Núcleo de Estudos em Letras e História, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Assis, São Paulo), June 10, 2010; Instituto Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos, Porto Alegre, June 16, 2010; Department of History and Program in American Studies, Pontifícia Universidade Católica-Rio de Janeiro, June 30, 2010
“Circuitos de Sujetividade: Palavras, Gestos e Objectos no Tempo,” Núcleo de Estudos em História da Cultura Intelectual, Universidade de São Paulo, June 7, 8, and 9, 2010
“História Oral na Historiografia dos Estados Unidos: Impasses e Problemas,” Associação Brasileira de História Oral, bi-annual meeting, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, April 29, 2010
“The National and the Transnational in U.S. Cultural and Intellectual History: A Review and Some Propositions,” Symposium on the United States in the World, University of California, Los Angeles, October 23, 2009
“The Shifting Sands of Quality: Museum Curators on What Makes a Great Collection,” Oral History Association, annual meeting Louisville, Kentucky, October 15, 2009
“From the Watts Towers to the Border Arts Centers: Community-Based Arts Movements in Twentieth-Century California,” Colloquium on Community and Creativity, Department of Sociology, University of Essex, Colchester, England, May 16, 2008
“Questions of Translation: U.S. Publication and Reception of Writing from the Americas, 1915-1965,” American Historical Association annual meeting, Washington DC, January 6, 2008; American Comparative Literature Association, annual meeting Long Beach, California, April 25, 2008
“History and Oral History: Assessing The Impact of Oral History Research on Historiographical Debates,” Oral History Association annual meeting, Little Rock, Arkansas, October 12, 2006
"Legal and Ethical Problems in Contemporary Oral History Research," August 18, 2005, Society of American Archivists annual meeting, New Orleans
“The Return of Pluralism: From García Canclini’s Las Culturas híbridas to The Motorcycle Diaries,” Twice-Told Tales, American Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley, May 12, 2005
“The Persistence of the National,” keynote address at 2o. Seminario en Estudios Culturales: La frontera a través del arte, Centro de Estudios Culturales-Museo and la Escuela de Artes, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexicali, October 15, 2004
Keynote speaker, conference on oral history and documentation of Pacific Rim history at Graduate Research Institute for Political Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, September 25-27, 2003
“Legal and Ethical Issues in University-Based Oral History Research Programs,” Annual Meeting of the Oral History Association, Bethesda, Maryland, October 12, 2003
“After The Rose: The Second Phase of Jay DeFeo’s Painting Career,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, November 6, 2003
“In Focus: Jay DeFeo’s Origin (1955),” University of California, Berkeley Museum of Art, November 19, 2003
“California Painting after World War II,” Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, May 15, 2004
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Self and Community,” The Feminist as Thinker: The Intellectual Contributions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, May 12, 2002
“The Light Foot Hears You and the Brightness Begins: Encountering Mortality in Jay DeFeo’s Last Paintings,” Townsend Center, University of California, Berkeley, March 13, 2002
“After Image: Jay Defeo’s The Rose and California’s Progressive Legacies,” inaugural lecture, University of California, Berkeley, November 14, 2001
“Women’s Networks and the Development of Modernist Approaches to Painting in California,” Western History Association annual meeting, October 13, 2000
“‘Shall Our Young Men Study in Paris?’: What American Painters and Poets Learned in France, 1880-1914,” Society for French Historical Studies annual meeting, April 1, 2000
“L’Antiaméricanisme en Amérique,” Colloque internationale sur «Les Antiaméricanismes», Grands Salons de la Sorbonne, Paris, France, June 3-4, 1999
“The American Studies Graduate Degree: Professional Training, Placements, and the Job Market,” American Studies Association annual meeting, November 18, 1998
Arts policy and quality of life in Southern California, Presidential Roundtable on the State of Southern California, Southern California Studies Center, University of Southern California, February 10, 1998
“Les Gammes: Making Visible the Representative Modern Man,” at symposium, Monet and the Cultural and Social Milieu of Impressionism, University of Michigan Art Museum, February 7, 1998
“Symbolic Gesture in the Choreography of Jeff Friedman,” lecture at the Department of Dance, Stanford University, May 8, 1996
“The Flame of Ambition: Masculinity and Dissent in the Cold War U.S.,” Center for the Study of Social Transformation, University of Michigan, March 1, 1995
“Labor and Eros: Free Love in France and the United States, 1870-1917,” Department of History Faculty Colloquium, University of Michigan, Feb. 14, 1995
“Censorship and the Arts,” Rethinking the 1950s conference sponsored by the American Studies Program, University of California, Los Angeles, December 5, 1994
“Hybridity and the Shifting Subject,” presented at University of California, Los Angeles, January 1994, sponsored by Oral History Program and Program in American Studies
“Religion as a ‘Return of the Repressed’?” presented at session on “Race, Class, and Gender in Oral History,” 1993 Annual Meeting, Oral History Association, Birmingham, Alabama, November 1993
“Recent Directions in Latino/Latina Scholarship,” American Culture Program and Latino/a Studies Program, University of Michigan, October 1993
“The Oral Self and Its Literary Shadows,” presented at meeting of the Southwest Oral History Association, San Diego, April 1993
“Body Image in Oral History Interviews,” presented at the 1992 Annual Meeting, Oral History Association, Cleveland, Ohio, October 1992
“Plumbing for a Blues Aesthetic: Roots of Visual Expression Found in Oral Histories with African-American Artists,” presented at the 1990 Annual Meeting of the Oral History Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 1990