Scholars@Duke

• Background
• 

  Education, Training, & Certifications

  • M.F.A., Georgia State University 1987
  • M.A., University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 1983
  • B.A., Tufts University 1980
• 

  Previous Appointments & Affiliations

  • Director of Graduate Studies of the Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2012 - 2016
  • Associate Professor of the Practice, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2003 - 2011
  • Executive Director, Center for Documentary Studies, Documentary Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2003 - 2008
• Recognition
• 

  In the News

  • FEB 19, 2023

    Duke Research Blog

    What Should We Do With Immoral Artists?

  • JAN 21, 2021

    January Book: Tom Rankin and Jill McCorkle: "Goat Light"

  • NOV 16, 2020

    Duke Arts

    Two New Books by Art, Art History & Visual Studies Faculty

  • MAY 1, 2019

    Duke Kunshan: That First Year Rush

  • JUN 27, 2017

    The Game-Changing iPhone: Past, Present and Future

  • SEP 28, 2015

    After Charleston, a Change of Focus for MFA Student

  • JAN 23, 2015

    WUNC

    Tom Rankin: Looking at Appalachia

  • JUN 21, 2013

    Tom Rankin on the Road Ahead

  • JUN 11, 2013

    News Tip -- Duke Experts Available on 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights Milestones

  • APR 23, 2013

    Award-Winning Historian Named Director of Center for Documentary Studies at Duke
• Expertise
• 

  Global Scholarship

  • Expertise

    • United States of America (Country) 

  • Teaching

    • China (Country) 
• Research
• 

  Selected Grants

  • Graduate Film Scholarship awarded by Princess Grace Foundation-USA 2018 - 2020
  • Film Fellowship awarded by Princess Grace Foundation-USA 2015 - 2016
  • UndraBorn: Extraordinary Children awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 2009 - 2010
  • Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life awarded by Mary Duke Biddle Foundation 2007 - 2008
  • Nuestras Historias/Nuestros Suenos: Our History/Our Dreams - Latino Immigrants in North Carolina awarded by Mary Duke Biddle Foundation 2006 - 2007
  • Gallery in the Classroom awarded by National Endowment for the Arts 1999 - 2002
• Publications & Artistic Works
• 

  Selected Publications

  • Books

    • Rankin, Tom, and Iris Tillman Hill, eds. Colors of Confinement: Color Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II. University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
    • Rankin, Tom. A Place of Tender Images: Paul Kwilecki’s Four Decades of Photography of Decatur County, GA, 2012.
    • Rankin, Tom. Truths of the Matter: Traditions in Documentary Studies, 2012.
    • Jackson, B., and D. Christian. In This Timeless Time. Edited by I. T. Hill and T. S. Rankin. University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
    • Jackson, B., and D. Christian. In This Timeless Time. Edited by I. T. Hill and T. S. Rankin. University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
    • Rankin, T. S. Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound. Edited by Tom Rankin, Iris Tillman Hill, John Biewen, and Alexa Dilworth, 2010.
    • Rankin, T. S. Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound. Edited by Tom Rankin, Iris Tillman Hill, John Biewen, and Alexa Dilworth, 2010.
    • Rankin, Tom. Beyond Beauty: The Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University. Duke University, Durham: The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, 2009.
    • Rankin, Tom. Local Heroes Changing America: Indivisible. W.W. Norton and Company/Lyndhurst Books, 2000.

  • Academic Articles

    • Rankin, Tom. “The Cruel Radiance of the Obvious.” Southern Cultures, 2011.
    • Rankin, Tom. “Maasai Community of Lakipia,” September 2009.
       Link to Item
    • Rankin, Tom. “Mike Seeger Remembered.” Porch Gallery, 2009.
       Link to Item
    • Rankin, Tom. “Paul Kwilecki Remembered.” Porch Gallery, 2009.
       Link to Item
    • Rankin, T. “Seeing What We Need To See.” The Light Factory, 2007.
    • Rankin, T. “Share a Table, Make a Friend.” Appalachian Heritage, 2007.
    • Rankin, T. “The Injuries of Time and Weather.” Southern Cultures 13.2 (2007): 3–28.
    • Rankin, Tom. “Visualizing the World of William Faulkner.” Edited by Peter J. Brownlee. American Studies International, Oct. 1998 XXXVI (2007).
    • Rankin, T. “Putting a Bottom Under It.” Oxford American, no. 49 (2005).
    • Rankin, T. “In Wildness (photo essay).” Daylight Magazine 1 (2004).
    • Rankin, Tom. “Rendering Local Community: Stories of Indivisible (Accepted).” Anchorage Museum of History and Art, October 2002.
    • Rankin, Tom. “Photography’s Lure,” October 2002.
    • Rankin, Tom. “Fixing the Southern Vernacular: The Contemporaneous Art of Walker Evans and William Faulkner,” July 2002.
    • Rankin, Tom. “Indivisible: Stories of American Community,” January 2001.

  • Book Sections

    • Rankin, Tom. “Judgment and Grace in Dixie.” In Judgment and Grace in Dixie, edited by Charles Reagan Wilson. The University of Georgia Press, 2007.
    • Rankin, Tom. “Careful Tending.” In Last Harvest: Truck Farmers in the Deep South, edited by P. Dilbeck. University of Georgia Press, 2006.
    • Rankin, Tom. “Home and Away at 25.” In 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Phogtographers. Powerhouse Books, 2003.

  • Other Articles

    • Rankin, Tom. “Five Farms: Stories from American Farm Families (NPR Special),” July 2009.
    • Rankin, Tom. “The Last Days of Kitty Shenay.” American Radio Works, 2004.

  • Conference Papers

    • Rankin, Tom. “The Lure of the Picture and the Nature of Tradition,” 2002.
    • Rankin, Tom. “Crossroads and the Cross: Visualizing the Blues, Visualizing the Blues Symposium,” 2000.
    • Rankin, Tom. “"Carried to the Heart:: Faith & Doubt",” 1999.
    • Rankin, Tom. “"Near the Cross": Rendering Faiths in the American South",” 1999.
• 

  Exhibitions, Screenings, & Performances

  • Nine Visions: Photography With Southern Vision | at Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History, Danville, VA 2011
  • Outlands: Land Over Time | at Jennifer Schwarz Gallery, Atlanta GA 2011
  • Place Meets Time | at Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA 2010
  • Five Farms: Stories from American Farm Families | at Kreps & Lyndhurst Galleries, Center for Documentary Studies 2009
  • Near the Cross: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta | at Special Collections Library, Perkins Library, Duke University 2008
  • Tell Me A Story - Unburied Treasures | at Mississippi Museum of Art 2008
  • Larry Brown: 24 Photographs by Tom Rankin | at Barnard Observatory, University of Mississippi 2007
  • Seeing What We Need To See | River Docs Exhibition at The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC 2007
  • Catfish: Personal Stories from the Southern Wilderness | at Creadle School of Art, Winter Park, FL 2006
  • Sacred Space: Photographs of African-American Spirituality | at Creadle School of Art, Winter Park, FL 2006
• 

  Artistic Works & Non-Print Media

  • Exhibits

    • Nine Visions: Photography With Southern Vision. Creator. 2011
    • Outlands: Land Over Time. Creator. 2011
    • Place Meets Time. Creator. 2010
    • Five Farms: Stories from American Farm Families. Creator. 2009
    • Near the Cross: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta. Creator. 2008
    • Tell Me A Story - Unburied Treasures. Creator. 2008
    • Larry Brown: 24 Photographs by Tom Rankin. Creator. 2007
    • Seeing What We Need To See. Creator. 2007
    • Catfish: Personal Stories from the Southern Wilderness. Creator. 2006
    • Sacred Space: Photographs of African-American Spirituality. Creator. 2006
• Teaching & Mentoring
• 

  Recent Courses

  • ARTHIST 791: Individual Research in Art History 2023
  • ARTSVIS 368S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2023
  • ARTSVIS 492: Independent Study 2023
  • ARTSVIS 496S: Visual Arts Practice and Cinematic Arts Concentration Senior Capstone 2023
  • ARTSVIS 768S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2023
  • CINE 499S: Visual Arts Practice and Cinematic Arts Concentration Senior Capstone 2023
  • DOCST 368S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2023
  • DOCST 768S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2023
  • VMS 373S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2023
  • VMS 496S: Visual Arts Practice and Cinematic Arts Concentration Senior Capstone 2023
  • ARTSVIS 391: Independent Project in the Visual Arts 2022
  • ARTSVIS 491: Independent Study 2022
  • DOCST 191: Independent Study 2022
  • DOCST 390S: Special Topics in Documentary Studies 2022
  • DOCST 790S: Special Topics in Documentary Studies 2022
  • MFAEDA 711: Documentary Fieldwork 2022
  • MFAEDA 720: MFAEDA Workshop and Critique I 2022
  • MFAEDA 722: MFAEDA Workshop and Critique III 2022
  • VMS 390S: Special Topics in Visual and Media Studies 2022
  • VMS 790S: Special Topics in Visual and Media Studies 2022
  • VMS 793: Independent Study in Visual and Media Studies 2022
  • ARTSVIS 368S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2021
  • ARTSVIS 693: Individual Research Independent Study 2021
  • DOCST 368S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2021
  • DOCST 768S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2021
  • MFAEDA 703: Continuity and Change in Experimental and Documentary Arts 2021
  • MFAEDA 720: MFAEDA Workshop and Critique I 2021
  • MFAEDA 721: MFAEDA Workshop and Critique II 2021
  • MFAEDA 722: MFAEDA Workshop and Critique III 2021
  • MFAEDA 723: MFAEDA Workshop and Critique IV 2021
  • VMS 373S: The View Camera: Black and White Large Format Photography 2021
• Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
• 

  Presentations & Appearances

  • Near the Cross: Photographs of the Sacred South. March 19, 2012  2012
  • Photographing American 2008-2009. March 19, 2012  2012
  • Being There: The Work of Bruce Jackson. March 19, 2011  2011
  • In Focus: Photography for Ethnographers. March 19, 2010  2010
  • Time Being: Photography and the Documentary Impulse. March 19, 2010  2010
  • Women: Pioneers in the South. March 19, 2010  2010
  • Picturing Ourselves: Documenting North Carolina Lives. March 20, 2009  2009
  • Beyond Beauty: Conversations about Photography. March 19, 2009  2009
  • Histories Past, Present, and Future: Some Notes on Ethnographic Archival Collections. March 19, 2009  2009
  • Reflecting on F.M. Steele. March 19, 2009  2009
  • The Art of Farming. March 19, 2009  2009
  • The Politics of Representation in Documentary. March 19, 2009  2009
  • Photo Story: Time, Place, Transition. November 7, 2008  2008
  • Photography and the Southern Experience. March 20, 2008  2008
  • Photography, Documentary, and the Making of Art: A Conversation with Barkley Hendricks. March 19, 2008  2008
• 

  Service to the Profession

  • Duke University Academic Council. 2012 - 2014  2012 - 2014
  • Host and Study Leader "Waterways of Russia" : Duke Alumni Association Education & Travel. September 2011  2011
  • Office of Institutional Equity Advisory Committee. 2010  2010
  • Advisory Board Member : Southern Arts Federation, Traditional Arts Program. 2009  2009
  • Duke Center for Civic Engagement, Campus Council on Civic Engagement. 2009  2009
  • MFAEDA Executive Committee. 2009  2009

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