Sandrine Zawacki: The role of universities in the segmentation of craft and art in the United States.

The thesis examines the role of American universities in the division between fine art and folk art, with a particular focus on the training and professionalisation of artists. This analysis is based on the example of ceramicists in the state of Georgia (in the south-east of the United States), and the research is based on semi-structured interviews with potters and sculptors.

The thesis adopts a socio-historical approach and offers a comparative perspective, highlighting the distinctive features of the cultural landscape in the United States.

The thesis is divided into three main sections.

The first section traces the establishment of potters in the nineteenth century within a rural economy, the virtual disappearance of this type of utilitarian production in the twentieth century (as a result of industrialisation), and the role played by American universities in the preservation of ‘folk potters’ as cultural heritage.

The second part focuses on the emergence of the ‘professional group’ of ceramicists, alongside a process of institutionalisation within universities between the 1950s and 1980s, against a backdrop of exponential growth in higher education in the United States.

The third section is devoted to an analysis of the current structure of this professional field: with university budgets under pressure, achieving the status of a ceramics professor has become an ideal attained by only a privileged few. This section seeks to shed light on the diversity of existing roles within this field, which is characterised both by close ties between practitioners and fierce competition.

Composition of the jury:

• Marc Perrenoud, Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow, University of Lausanne, Rapporteur
• Frédéric Poulard, University Professor, Université Paris Cité, Rapporteur
• Sonia Birocheau, Senior Lecturer, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Examiner
• Elizabeth Browne, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, United States, Examiner
• Alexandre Mathieu-Fritz, University Professor, Gustave Eiffel University, Examiner
• Corinne Delmas, University Professor, Gustave Eiffel University, PhD supervisor
• Flora Bajard, Research Fellow, CNRS, Co-supervisor