Draft:Amanda Tumusiime

Amanda Evassy Tumusiime is a Ugandan academic, painter, activist, feminist and art historian. She is the first woman to attain a PhD, two master's degrees and three post-doctorate fellowships in Kabale district. She is an associate professor, senior lecturer and dean at Margaret Trowell School of Industrial Arts and Fine art at Makerere University.

Background and Education
Tumusiime is born in Kaharo, Kabale district, Southwestern region of Uganda to late Stephen Bamwekingire and Joy Bamwekingirwe. Her dad when she was 10 years old.

Tumusiime attended Kaharo Primary School for her primary education and joined Mary Hill High School, Mbarara in 1993 for her secondary education.

Tumusiime graduated with a bachelor's degree of Industrial and fine art from 1994 to 1997 and a master's degree of Industrial and Fine art from Makerere University in 2001. She holds a master's degree in art history from University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa which she got in 2004. She also holds a PhD (DLitt et Phil) in Art History from University of South Africa. She has also earned three post-doctorate fellowships in Uganda, USA, and South Africa.

Tumusiime has participated in fellowships like the ASA Presidential Fellowship at Princeton University, Fullbright Research Scholar fellowship at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Carnegie Next Generation of African Academics fellowship at Makerere University and also the American Council of Learned Societies under the African Humanities Program at Rhodes University.

Tumusiime is married to Angelo Kakande

Work Experience
Tumusiime served as an assistant lecturer at Makerere University from 1997 to 2002 when she was made a senior lecturer. In 2002, she was appointed as the Dean Margaret Trowell School of Industrial Arts and Fine Art at Makerere University, a position she serves till present as of April 2024.

Tumusiime also served as the Head of Department of Sculpture and Drawing (2010 - 2011), Head of Department of Visual, Communication, Design and Multimedia.

Artwork
Tumusiime uses her art pieces to advocate for women's rights and people with disabilities, give opinions about nature, and environment. Tumusiime art pieces includes Another Time, Another Place which she started a canvas in 2002 and finished in 2016.

Tumusiime use tools such as oil paint for canvas, watercolor, pastel which is a mixture of oil paint on canvas and paper to design her artwork.

Research initiatives
Tumusiime has formed research initiatives, projects and networks like Rethinking art in deaf culture (2016 to present as per April 2024), Vision and revisions: Rethinking histories of phenomenal women in Kigezi (2017), Re-engaging grass-root women into contemporary global economics for empowerment. (2015 to present as per April 2024), Self-realisation through rewriting their history. (2015 to present as per April 2024). She uses these to fundraise for girls' education among others.

Achievements
Tumusiime got the American Council of Learned Societies award under the African Studies Association Presidential Award 2016 category in US. On 7 March 2019 during the Womanhood Festival celebrations at National Theatre in Kampala, Amanda was given the Maya Angelou Award.

Tumusiime was awarded as the Best female art student during her undergraduate studies at Makerere University by the University Association of Women. She also won the MAK-SIDA Research Training Program Award during the International Red Cross and Red Cresent Movement Expo '92 in Seville, Spain.