Pedagogical Resources
CURRICULUM and LESSONS
K-12 Lesson Plans from the Boston University African Studies Center
Masks and Masquerades have been a contentious subject in teaching about Africa, for the obvious reason that they have been taught reductively, in a decontextualized way, and have been appropriated in ways that are not respectful of people’s actual practices they come from. These two curriculum units created by Alumni from the BU Masters in Art Education and the Teaching Africa Program present a culturally responsive way of teaching about masks that engages students with mask-making without appropriation, reduction, or reproduction.
Dancing with the ancestors: A study of Egungun Masquerades and Nick Cave’s Soundsuits, Pre-K-K unit designed by Paula Mans
Exploring Identity through Yoruba culture, Masks, and the Contemporary Artists of the Diaspora, 6th-7th grade unit designed by Marie Darling
HOW-TO AND PRACTICAL/APPLIED BOOKS:
Title: Making Masks
Author: Melody Anderson
Publisher: Blurb, 2022
Link (digital PDF and softcover): https://www.blurb.com/b/11031604-making-masks
Title: Complete Book of Paper Mask Making
Author: Michael Grater
Publisher: Dover, 1985
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Making-Grater-Michael-Paperback/dp/B00IIBEENM
Title: Masks and Masked Faces: A Manual for the Construction of 22 Masks and their Variations
Author: Deborah Hunt
Publisher: MaskHunt Motions, 2013
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Masks-Masked-Faces-construction-variations/dp/B013IMPQDM
Title: The Prop Builder’s Mask-Making Handbook
Author: Thurston James
Publisher: Betterway Publications Inc., White Hall, Virginia, 1990
Link: https://www.pistilbooks.net/product/sku/148468
Title: The Mask Handbook
Author: Anita Sinclair
Publisher: Anita Sinclair, Maldon, Vic., 2010
Link: https://anitasinclair.tripod.com/
Title: Maskmaking
Author: Carole Sivin
Publisher: Davis Publications, Worcester, Mass., 1986
Link to free digital version: https://archive.org/details/maskmaking0000sivi
Title: The Mask Handbook: A Practical Guide
Author: Toby Wilsher
Publisher: Routledge, London, 2007
Title: The Other Face: The Mask in the Arts
Author: Walter Sorell
Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973
Link to free digital version: https://archive.org/details/otherfacemaskina0000sore/page/24/mode/2up
ARTICLES
Leitch, R. M., & Conroy, J. C. (n.d.). 8.7 Masks as Methodology and the Phenomenological Turn: Issues of Interpretation. In International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research (pp. 1533–1550). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9282-0_75