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Judith Bettelheim, PhD
AKA betheim@SFSU.edu
Judith with her son, Benjamin Edwards
at his 21st Birthday - August 2000
After five wonderful years at Antioch College, which provided me the
opportunity to study in France and Mexico, work on a kibbutz in
Israel (pre 1967 war), live in Chicago, NYC, and Denver, and also
travel around Europe and to California, I decided to get serious and
go to graduate school. I ended up at UCLA, earning an MA in
PreHispanic and African art history.
I loved LA (still do, and plan to retire there) and spent six years
living at the ocean in either Ocean Park or Venice. I was active in
the feminist art movement, and various other social/political
struggles. After the degree I taught part-time at a few So Cal
institutions until I realized that I needed a PhD to continue my
career.
So in 1974 I returned to school, spending the next two years at Yale,
but not feeling comfortable in New Haven. My mentor there had become
quite famous as a radical art historian who specialized in the
African Diaspora, and he was delighted to let me combine my academic
work with my continuing involvement in dance. So I became a
specialist in festival arts, doing my fieldwork in the Caribbean
during Mardi Gras or Christmas -New year celebrations. I then moved
to Oakland in 1977 to join my then partner who had started
architecture school at Cal Berkeley, and to complete my PhD
dissertation. In 1978 we married, and in '79 welcomed our son
Benjamin to the world. We were divorced in '83.
In 1984 I began a tenure track position at San Francisco State. I am
still there as a full professor and am counting the years and money
until I can retire! The rest of the story is the usual report of
academic life: a few books, lots of travel, lots of work at a blue
collar state institution. Perhaps some of my class mates saw a
1988-90 exhibition Caribbean Festival Arts. It travelled to six
cities; I was co-curator. During the 1990s I specialized in Cuban
festivals, art, etc. and have done research there consistently since
1985. Presently I am working on an exhibition of Cuban prints and am
trying to finish my last book, ever.
The other bright spot is my son Benjamin, who turns 23 in August and
will (hopefully) finish Vassar College in December. He is majoring in
philosophy and soccer, and surely will continue his passion with
sports afterwards. He spends summers as a life guard, but did take
time off to spend one semester in Madrid. (As a child he
travelled/lived with me in Jamaica, Cuba, Mexico, etc and continued
the travel bug as he jetted (I kid you not) around Europe on each
break while in Madrid.) I tell everyone that his athletic passion
comes from my youth and my activities in high school, but I have to
show them my year books to prove it.
My dad passed in '93, but my mother still lives in the house they
moved to in Nyack in about 1977. They wanted streets and public
transportation. Interestingly, the two houses on the New City land
were each bought by friends of both my sister and myself. They have
subsequently been resold.
Judith Bettelheim, PhD
Professor of Art History
Department of Art
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Ave
S.F., CA 94132
department phone: 415 338 2176
office phone 415 338 1269
department fax 415 338 6537
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Ave
S.F., CA 94132
