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TheMuseumsLab is a platform for joint learning, exchange and continuing education on the future of museums in both Africa and Europe. The programme started in 2021 has the aim to establish close and lasting networks between future shapers of museum concepts on both sides.

The project was developed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the Master‘s Programme in Museum Management and Communication at the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Berlin, in close cooperation with the African consultancy group The Advisors. Several African and European museums as well as cultural institutions are partners with the programme. The project is financed by the German Federal Foreign Office and supported by the German Minister of State for Culture and the Media as well as the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

More here.

The American Philosophical Society’s Library & Museum invites scholars in all fields to submit paper proposals for a daylong interdisciplinary symposium that will explore the opportunities and challenges of open data and digital humanities. As institutions have made datasets accessible for re-use, remixing, and redistribution, individuals have been able to produce new useful knowledge beyond restrictions or control. Classrooms and Digital Humanities projects have created powerful visualizations and complex analyses which shed new light on important historic and contemporary issues. Yet the increasing availability of these sources has raised important questions about intellectual property, attribution, labor, and data sovereignty. 

The symposium is inspired by the Open Data Initiative (https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/data) of the Center for Digital Scholarship at the American Philosophical Society. This initiative has created freely accessible datasets (https://github.com/AmericanPhilosophicalSociety) from the APS’s Library & Museum holdings, including the Eastern State Penitentiary Records of Admissions, 1838-1850; Benjamin Franklin’s Ledgers; Records of Indentures and Apprenticeships in the Port of Philadelphia, 1771-1773; Benjamin Franklin’s Accounts; and James Madison’s Montpelier Meteorological Records, 1784-1793, as well as various digital humanities projects derived from this data.

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A summer research internship for undergraduates funded by the National Science Foundation (REU Site, EAR-1062692, OCE-1560088)

Natural History Research Experiences (NHRE) is a 10-week summer internship program hosted at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. NHRE interns work closely with scientific mentors to complete independent research projects in Earth Science, Biology, and Anthropology.

Applications are now open for NHRE 2022, which will take place between May 31st and August 5th. We are currently planning for an in-person program. The application deadline is February 2nd.

More here.

The Future is Now: Emerging Perspectives in Museology and Museum Anthropology–A Council for Museum Anthropology Virtual Symposium

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed significant pressures on students and early career museum professionals, as well as limited opportunities to connect with fellow scholars at conferences. The Council for Museum Anthropology (CMA) will be delaying its own in-person conference until 2023. With this in mind, the CMA will be hosting a virtual symposium in Spring 2022 focused on the ongoing work of students and emerging professionals.

 Understanding the roles that students and emerging professionals play in helping to change the landscape of the museum field, the CMA seeks proposals from undergraduates, graduate students, and early career professionals for its 2022 Spring Symposium, The Future is Now: Emerging Perspectives in Museology and Museum Anthropology. The virtual symposium will take place March 25-26, 2022, and will provide opportunities for participants to share their research in a supportive environment with fellow scholars and professionals.

The symposium will be held virtually on Zoom. Papers can be submitted individually or as organized panels. Individually submitted papers will be organized into thematic panels. Each paper should be no longer than 15 minutes long; organized panels are provided a total of 75 minutes (4 papers + Q&A). Two papers selected for excellence by the CMA board will be awarded prizes of $500 each.

 To submit: Please submit proposals with the following information to council.museumanth@gmail.com by December 31, 2021.

Name

Email address

Bio (100 words or less, including institutional affiliation if applicable, job title/student status)

Paper title

Abstract (250 words or less)  

Deadline: February 13, 2022

The Indiana University Institute for Advanced Study is now accepting applications for the 2022 Repository Research Fellowship (RRF). Fellowships in this cycle will be between April and December 2022. Prospective fellows may apply either to be on campus or to work virtually. Virtual Fellows will be eligible to receive up to $1,500 to be used for project-related expenses. Fellows coming for a campus residency are eligible for up to $2,500 reimbursement of travel costs (including lodging).

The fellowship is open to community scholars or faculty members from outside IUB who will conduct in-depth research in collections of the partner repositories. The ideal fellowship arrangement is two weeks of focused research using the collection items and tools provided by the repository. If a different timing is desired, it should be proposed and explained in the application. 

These repositories are participating in 2022:

● Archives of Traditional Music (virtual or in person)

● IU Herbarium (virtual or in person)

● IU Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology (virtual or in person)

● IU Paleontology Collection (in person only)

● Wylie House Museum (virtual or in person)

● University Archives (virtual or in person)

● See here for the most current list, as more repositories may join before application closes.

Applicants are responsible for discussing the collections they wish to use with their prospective host repository to find out what will be available and (for virtual fellows) in what format. For more information on specific collections please visit this link: https://go.iu.edu/4feF

Collaboration is encouraged. Fellows are required to make a virtual or in-person presentation of some aspect of the project. IU IAS staff members will facilitate these presentations.

Eligibility: Non-IU faculty members and community scholars are eligible for this fellowship. Graduate or undergraduate students and previous SRRF/RRF fellows are not eligible to receive the fellowship. Applications from faculty members at Minority Serving Institutions and community colleges and from source community scholars are particularly welcome. 

Successful proposals will demonstrate:

● understanding of the collection(s) proposed for use
● the project’s anticipated impact
● plans for wide-spread dissemination
● possibilities for ongoing collaboration
● benefit for the repository as well as the researcher

Questions about collections should be directed to listed repository contacts. Questions about the fellowship should be directed to ias@indiana.edu.

The Future is Now: Emerging Perspectives in Museology and Museum Anthropology–A Council for Museum Anthropology Virtual Symposium

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed significant pressures on students and early career museum professionals, as well as limited opportunities to connect with fellow scholars at conferences. The Council for Museum Anthropology (CMA) will be delaying its own in-person conference until 2023. With this in mind, the CMA will be hosting a virtual symposium in Spring 2022 focused on the ongoing work of students and emerging professionals.

 Understanding the roles that students and emerging professionals play in helping to change the landscape of the museum field, the CMA seeks proposals from undergraduates, graduate students, and early career professionals for its 2022 Spring Symposium, The Future is Now: Emerging Perspectives in Museology and Museum Anthropology. The virtual symposium will take place March 25-26, 2022, and will provide opportunities for participants to share their research in a supportive environment with fellow scholars and professionals.

The symposium will be held virtually on Zoom. Papers can be submitted individually or as organized panels. Individually submitted papers will be organized into thematic panels. Each paper should be no longer than 15 minutes long; organized panels are provided a total of 75 minutes (4 papers + Q&A). Two papers selected for excellence by the CMA board will be awarded prizes of $500 each.

 To submit: Please submit proposals with the following information to council.museumanth@gmail.com by December 31, 2021.

Name

Email address

Bio (100 words or less, including institutional affiliation if applicable, job title/student status)

Paper title

Abstract (250 words or less)  

Brown University invites applications for a 2-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2022/24, with a specialization in the History of Art and Architecture and/or a related discipline such as Museum Studies. The candidate should have a deep knowledge of and commitment to Native American and Indigenous Studies within the Americas and/or with an international focus. This position is to be held jointly at the Cogut Institute for the Humanities and the Department of the History of Art & Architecture, effective July 1, 2022. We seek qualified candidates who will contribute to the racial equity and diversity of the academic community through their service, mentorship, teaching, and scholarship. Our goal is to appoint an exceptional scholar of Native American and Indigenous art, which could include the study of exhibition practices, material, visual and built cultures, who will contribute to Critical Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown. 

The successful candidate will teach two courses per year in the Department of the History of Art & Architecture, cross-listed with Native American and Indigenous Studies and in the Cogut Institute’s Humanities course offerings. The fellow will also be affiliated with the Cogut Institute and is expected to participate in the weekly Tuesday seminars as well as other activities of the Institute. PhD must be in hand by July 1, 2022 or must have been awarded in the last five years. Salary of $61,500 with an increase to $63,907 the second year plus benefits and a research budget of $2,000 per year.
Please send letter of application, CV, two samples of course syllabi, and names of three references.
Applicants must apply online to: http://apply.interfolio.com/98560. Applications will be reviewed until March 1, 2022.

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Via The New York Times, December 9, 2021

“In the wake of growing outrage over the role the Sacklers may have played in the opioid crisis, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sackler family jointly announced on Thursday that the Sackler name would be removed from seven exhibition spaces, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur.

“Our families have always strongly supported the Met, and we believe this to be in the best interest of the museum and the important mission that it serves,” the descendants of Dr. Mortimer Sackler and Dr. Raymond Sackler said in a statement. “The earliest of these gifts were made almost 50 years ago, and now we are passing the torch to others who might wish to step forward to support the museum.”

The announcement marks a significant break between the world’s largest museum and one of the world’s biggest benefactors, a potent symbol of the upheaval underway at cultural institutions over where their donations come from.

“We are seeing museums transition from gatekeepers of the elite to arbiters of social change,” said Dr. Rebekah Beaulieu, an editor of “The State of Museums: Voices from the Field,” a book published in 2018. “There is an increasing expectation that museums are institutions held in the public trust, and therefore accountable to the general public.””

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The Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology is a graduate student summer training program in museum research methods offered through the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History with major funding from the Cultural Anthropology Program of the National Science Foundation.

Summer 2022 dates are June 13—July 8. 

During four weeks of intensive training in seminars and hands-on workshops at the museum and an off-site collections facility, students are introduced to the scope of collections and their potential as data. Students become acquainted with strategies for navigating museum systems, learn to select methods to examine and analyze museum specimens, and consider a range of theoretical issues that collections-based research may address. In consultation with faculty, each student carries out preliminary data collection on a topic of their own choice and develops a prospectus for research to be implemented upon return to their home university. Visiting faculty members for 2022 will be announced in the coming months. Local faculty will include Dr. Joshua A. Bell, SIMA director and Dr. Candace Greene Director emeritus of SIMA as well as other Smithsonian Institution Department of Anthropology curators and staff. 

Who should apply?: Graduate students preparing for research careers in cultural anthropology who are interested in using museum collections as a data source. The program is not designed to serve students seeking careers in museum management. Students at both the masters and doctoral level will be considered for acceptance. Students in related interdisciplinary programs (Indigenous Studies, Folklore, etc.) are welcome to apply if the proposed project is anthropological in nature. All U.S. students are eligible for acceptance, even if studying abroad. International students can be considered only if they are enrolled in a university in the U.S. Canadian First Nation members are eligible under treaty agreements. 

Costs:  The program covers students’ tuition and shared housing in local furnished apartments. A small stipend will be provided to assist with the cost of food and other local expenses. Participants are individually responsible for the cost of travel to and from Washington, DC. 

Application deadline: March 1, 2022

For more information and to apply, please visit https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/anthropology/programs/summer-institute-museum-anthropology 

The Program in Museum Studies, an interdisciplinary program of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University, invites applications for Faculty Fellow. The initial appointment will be for one year beginning September 1, 2022, with the expectation of annual renewal for two additional years pending administrative and budgetary approval and satisfactory performance. We seek strong scholars whose research interests engage the history and theory of museums, and whose knowledge of museums extends beyond areas of specialization.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, teaching three Museum Studies courses a year, coordination of student internships, advising master’s theses, and actively participating in the life of a dynamic program. Teaching experience in higher education, at least three years of museum experience and an MA/MFA degree is required for this position. Review of applications will begin on January 9, 2022 and continue until the search is complete.

More here.