Two Short Courses in Tartu
#fulbrightspecialist #fulbright #exchangeourworld In an earlier post, I expressed my appreciation for the opportunity to visit the University of Tartu as a Fulbright Specialist. Among my tasks w…
Tag: museums
The University of Tartu, Appreciated
I recently spent an extended time in Tartu, Estonia. I had the wonderful opportunity to be a Fulbright Specialist visiting the Departments of: (1) Estonian and Comparative Folklore,…
Layers – A Photography Exhibition #livesofobjects
Allegra has an extensive archive of photographs. These images are usually incorporated as supporting materials to written essays. This exhibition is a small intervention in the archive to…
What’s Left Behind – A visual essay #livesofobjects
Brook Andrew is an interdisciplinary artist who examines dominant narratives, often relating to colonialism and modernist theories. Through museum and archival interventions, he aims to offer alternat…
The Secret Life of Objects: Strategies for Telling New Stories in Exhibitions #livesofobjects
You can find the entire cosmos lurking in its least remarkable objects – Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet It’s 2013 and I am poring over the Ethnographic Collection of the…
The Un(der)revealed Relations of Things in Museums: an introduction #livesofobjects
I was at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam one fall afternoon when I decided to take a shortcut through the exhibition from the library to my office. To take…
The turbulent life of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
Launched in 1932 the school has spent almost a century uncovering Iraq’s ancient treasures, including the spectacular Assyrian capital at Nimrud On a dark November day in 1929,…
The turbulent life of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
Launched in 1932 the school has spent almost a century uncovering Iraq’s ancient treasures, including the spectacular Assyrian capital at Nimrud On a dark November day in 1929,…
After the Workshop, Before the Fieldwork (12/12)
A photograph of the project team and special guests on the steps of the Anthropological Museum of Guangxi in Nanning. December 12, 2017. Photograph courtesy of the Anthropological…
Workshop on Ethnographic Methods in Museum Folklore and Ethnology
This post is the next in my series of reports on the trip to China that American museum colleagues and I took in December 2017. The Beijing posts…
The Ethnic Costume Museum at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology (12/9)
In the previous post in this series, I described how my traveling companions and I visited Beijing’s 798 Art Zone. (For the series in order, see 1, 2,…
The Museum of Women and Children | 中国妇女儿童博物馆 (12/9)
This is the third 2017 China trip post. As in the two (1, 2) previous posts, it reports on adventures in Beijing with Jon Kay (my MMWC colleague)…
The Temple of Heaven | 天壇 (12/8)
This briefer note is the second on our recent trip to China. The context for this travel will come (I hope) a few posts down the road. For…
The IU Gateway Office and Tsinghua University Art Museum (12/8)
This post is about a portion of my recent trip to China. The main focus of this trip was collaborative ethnographic research in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, but…
Food at the Museum
A brief reminder about two off-site events during the AAA meetings in DC: The SAFN distinguished lecturer, Paula J. Johnson, is a curator, project director, and public historian…
Shifting Perspectives: The Man in Africa Hall at the American Museum of Natural History at 50
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in NY circa 2000. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. The “Man in Africa Hall” at the American Museum…
Anthropology Now and Then in the American Museum of Natural History: An Alternative Museum
The action by Decolonize this Place on the steps of the AMNH included veiling the statue of Teddy Roosevelt. Photo courtesy Hrag Vartanian. https://hyperallergic.com/329225/decolonizethisplace-d…
Were Peace Medals the Price of Loyalty?
Gift-giving is common to all human societies; it’s one of the behaviors that makes us human. We give gifts to celebrate holidays, birthdays, and weddings, not to mention…
Looking Ahead: University Anthropology Museums Matter
With notices going out from the Program Committee this week, the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting (November 29-December 3, 2017) is coming into focus. Notes that I am…
The Many Hands Shirt: Reuniting a Family and an Heirloom
In late 2013, I got an out-of-the-blue call from Stella Iron Cloud, a member of the Oglala Lakota (a.k.a. Oglala Sioux) Tribe of South Dakota. She asked if…
Paid Internships for IU Students at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures
We have realized a big museum goal–establishing a paid internship program at MMWC. Please check out the announcement (below and here) and encourage bachelors and masters students to…
Mild Apocalypse – Feral Landscapes in Denmark: Reflections on an Exhibition
By Nathalia S. Brichet, Frida Hastrup, and Felix Riede § From the late 1930s until 1970, low-grade brown coal was extracted at Søby in mainland Denmark. This activity carried out largely…
Awkward Objects of Genocide
The Holocaust and Vernacular Arts in and beyond Polish Ethnographic Museums “Krematorium” (“Crematorium”), Władysław Chajec (1904-1986), 1965, Kamienica Górna, Poland. Inventory No. 31395, Collection …
