Author: Lillia McEnaney

The Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) seeks an Assistant, Associate, or Full Curator in Anthropology, to start on or after July 1, 2023.

We seek a sociocultural anthropologist with an innovative research program addressing critical social issues, such as health, disease, climate change and/or biodiversity loss, inequality, migration, and intergroup conflict or cooperation. In addition to scientific excellence, the successful candidate must demonstrate a track-record of community partnerships and engagement. A thriving fieldwork program is strongly encouraged, and is open to any geographic region. The ideal candidate will have a research profile that amplifies our existing strengths and has the potential to develop new collaborations across the Museum’s biological and physical sciences; we particularly welcome rigorous research approaches, including mixed-methods ethnography and other quantitative methods.

This is a tenure track position with rank and tenure negotiable depending on the candidate’s degree of professional experience and accomplishment. AMNH curators are expected to maintain a high level of productivity in original research, to seek extramural funding, and to assume oversight responsibility for management of Museum collections and staff relevant to their areas of expertise. The AMNH maintains world-class Anthropological collections consisting of over 250,000 ethnographic and archaeological objects from the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific Islands. Other responsibilities may include advising graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, offering courses in the Museum’s Richard Gilder Graduate School (https://www.amnh.org/research/richard-gilder-graduate-school), serving on committees, and participating in Museum-sponsored exhibitions and educational programs.

Via Smithsonian Magazine, November 16, 2022

For over 80 years, Harvard University’s Peabody Museum has been in possession of a collection of hair samples taken from 700 Native American children. Last week, the museum disclosed the collection in a formal apology and pledged to return the samples to families and tribal communities.

“We recognize that for many Native American communities, hair holds cultural and spiritual significance,” writes the museum, adding that it apologizes “for our complicity in the objectification of Native peoples and for our more than 80-year possession of hair taken from their relatives.”

More here.

The School for Advanced Research, Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) offers two nine-month internships (September 1–May 31) to individuals who are recent college graduates, current graduate students, or junior museum professionals interested in furthering their professional museum experience and enhancing their intellectual capacity for contributing to the expanding field and discourse of museum studies. The internships include a semi-monthly salary, free housing and utilities, a book allowance, the cost of one professional conference, and reimbursable travel to and from SAR. One internship is open to an Indigenous individual from the U.S. or Canada, and one internship is open to any U.S. or Canadian citizen meeting the application requirements.

Interns devote their time to working on IARC educational programming, research and writing activities, and collections management and registration. Other requirements include making one public presentation; attending a professional conference; assisting with IARC seminars, symposia, and collection tours; and working on outreach initiatives to local Native communities. Interns will also participate in interviews, photo sessions, video recordings, and exit interviews to document their experience.

For more information, please visit our online application portal or download the Anne Ray Internship Application. The deadline to apply is March 1st.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please read the Anne Ray Internship FAQ (https://sarweb.org/iarc/internships/anne-ray-internship-faqs/) first to see if the answer to your question is already available.

“Who defines the needs of the people and the related epistemologies that serve them?” (Karp & Masolo 2000:10)

Closing Date: Monday 1 May 2023

The African Critical Inquiry Programme is pleased to announce the 2023 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards to support African doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are enrolled at South African universities and conducting dissertation research on relevant topics. Grant amounts vary depending on research plans, with a maximum award of ZAR 50,000.

The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa. The ACIP is committed to collaboration between scholars and the makers of culture/history, and to fostering inquiry into the politics of knowledge production, the relationships between the colonial/apartheid and the postcolonial/postapartheid, and the importance of critical pluralism as against nationalist discourse. ACIP is a partnership between the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape and the Laney Graduate School of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (USA).

ELIGIBILITY: The Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards are open to African postgraduate students (regardless of citizenship) in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Applicants must be currently registered in a Ph.D. programme in a South African university and be working on topics related to ACIP’s focus. Awards will support doctoral research projects focused on topics such as institutions of public culture, particular aspects of museums and exhibitions, forms and practices of public scholarship, culture and communication, and the theories, histories, and systems of thought that shape and illuminate public culture and public scholarship. Applicants must submit a dissertation proposal that has been approved by their institution to confirm the award; this must be completed before they begin ACIP-supported on-site research or by December 2023, whichever comes first.

APPLICATION PROCESS: Awards are open to proposals working with a range of methodologies in the humanities and humanistic social sciences, including research in archives and collections, fieldwork, interviews, surveys, and quantitative data collection. Applicants are expected to write in clear, intelligible prose for a selection committee that is multi-disciplinary and cross-regional. Proposals should show thorough knowledge of the major concepts, theories, and methods in the applicant’s discipline and in other related fields and include a bibliography relevant to the research. Applicants should specify why an extended period of on-site research is essential to successfully complete the proposed doctoral dissertation. Guidance and advice on how to write a good proposal and budget can be found in the Resources section of the ACIP website (http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html) or here: http://www.ssrc.org/publications/view/the-art-of-writing-proposals/.

To apply, eligible applicants should submit the following as a single file attachment with documents in the order listed:

• completed cover sheet (form below and online at the end of application information at http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html, under ACIP Opportunities)
• abstract of the proposed research project (250 words maximum) 
• research proposal outlining the project’s goals, central questions, significance, and relevance for ACIP’s central concerns. Proposals should include a clearly formulated, realistic research design and plan of work responsive to the project’s theoretical and methodological concerns. Applicants should provide evidence of appropriate training to undertake the proposed research, including the language fluency necessary for the project. Proposals should be no longer than 1800 words; they should be double spaced, with 2.5 cm margins and a font no smaller than 11 point. Applications that do not follow this format will not be considered.
• bibliography of up to two additional pages
• project budget listing project expenses to be supported by the award. Your budget should justify both items listed and amounts requested (what are they based on?)
• your curriculum vitae
• current academic transcript and proof of registration at your current institution
• two referee letters; one of these must be from your supervisor. Your referees should comment specifically on your proposed project, its quality and significance, and your qualifications for undertaking it. They should also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your project and how you and your work would benefit from receiving the research award. Referee letters should be submitted directly to the Selection Committee.

Funding is to be used for on-site dissertation research; research cannot be at the applicant’s home institution unless that institution has necessary site-specific research holdings not otherwise available to the applicant. Applicants who have completed significant funded dissertation research by the start of their proposed ACIP research may be ineligible to apply to extend research time. Eligibility will be at the discretion of the ACIP Selection Committee, depending on completed research time and funding. Please note that the Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards support dissertation research only and may not be used for dissertation write-up, tuition, study at other universities, conference participation, or to reimburse debts or expenses for research already completed. The programme does not accept applications from Ph.D. programmes in Law, Business, Medicine, Nursing, or Journalism, nor does it accept applications from doctoral programmes that do not lead to a Ph.D.

SELECTION PROCESS: Applications will be reviewed by the ACIP Selection Committee, an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners drawn from a range of universities and cultural institutions. Selection will be based on the merit and strength of the application. Award amounts will vary according to project needs; the maximum award is ZAR 50,000. Awards will be made only if applications of high quality are received. Notification of awards will be made by late July.

Successful applicants will be required to attend the African Critical Inquiry Workshop in the following year and will have opportunities to consult with scholars associated with the Workshop. They will be expected to attend subsequent ACIP Workshops while completing their dissertations, if possible. After completing their research, applicants must submit a final research report and a financial report.

Students who receive an Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Award from the African Critical Inquiry Programme must acknowledge the support in any publications resulting from the research and in their dissertation. When the dissertation is completed, they must deposit a copy with the African Critical Inquiry Programme at the Centre for Humanities Research.

Closing date: Applications and referees’ letters must be received on or before Monday 1 May 2023. Incomplete applications and applications that do not conform to format guidelines will not be considered.

Please submit materials as a single file attachment with documents in the order listed above. Applications should be sent by email with the heading “ACIP 2023 Research Award Application” to acip.uwc@gmail.com.

Supported by funding from the Ivan Karp and Corinne Kratz Fund

http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html

https://www.facebook.com/ivan.karp.corinne.kratz.fund

Via The Yale Daily News, October 24, 2022

At the heart of an exhibit dedicated to documenting the erasure of Indigenous communities, an empty pedestal has prompted concern over the Yale University Art Gallery’s own alleged censorship of an Indigenous elder.

“Fazal Sheikh: Exposures” is a new exhibit at the Yale University Art Gallery that premiered Sept. 9 and will be on display until Jan. 8, 2023. Based in desert regions in Israel and the American Southwest, the exhibit explores the extensive consequences of environmental racism on Indigenous communities.

During Sheikh’s Artist Talk on Oct. 6, he told the crowd that this exhibit was almost canceled due to “the heart” of the original exhibit being missing: an offering from a Diné spiritual advisor.

One of the displayed projects, “Exposure,” is set in the American Southwest and looks at extractive mining practices and their consequences on Indigenous communities. Over the course of his time in the Southwest, Sheikh grew close to a Navajo Diné elder named Jonah Yellowman. As one of the “wisdom-keepers” of his tribe, Yellowman is held in the highest esteem, and has been a key mover in protecting 1.35 million acres of sacred lands in Bears Ears, Utah.

But when Yellowman gifted an offering to be housed in the room, the gallery removed it.

“Jonah’s [offering] was very much about protection and beauty and the gesture of a kind of attentiveness towards sacred landscapes,” Sheikh said. “So what on earth would make people feel as though they wanted to assail that, what was the reason?”

More here.

The University of Kansas Office of the Chancellor invites applications for a Repatriation Program Manager (RPM). The RPM coordinates federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act compliance (NAGPRA), consultations, repatriations, and other activities by managing inventory and curation of Native American and Indigenous artifacts and remains across the university. This position will advance KU’s Repatriation Program and serve as a liaison between the university, tribal nations, the National NAGPRA program, and other federal, state and/or international agencies. The position will report to the Vice Chancellor for Audit, Risk & Compliance.

In addition to the professional requirements listed below, the person hired to fill this position must be culturally aware, a good listener with excellent verbal and written communication skills that effectively employ tact and discretion with sensitive matters, highly organized with attention to detail and accuracy, and have a strong work ethic and positive attitude.

More here.

“Who defines the needs of the people and the related epistemologies that serve them?” (Karp & Masolo 2000:10)

Closing Date: Monday 1 May 2023

The African Critical Inquiry Programme invites proposals from scholars and/or practitioners in public cultural institutions in South Africa to organise a workshop to take place in 2024. The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa. The ACIP is committed to collaboration between scholars and the makers of culture/ history, and to fostering inquiry into the politics of knowledge production, the relationships between the colonial/apartheid and the postcolonial/postapartheid, and the importance of critical pluralism as against nationalist discourse. ACIP is a partnership between the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape and the Laney Graduate School of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (USA).

ACIP Workshops are intended as annual occasions to identify and address critical themes, fundamental questions, and pressing practical issues concerning public culture. For instance, Workshops might focus on particular questions and issues related to publics, visuality, museums and exhibitions, art, performance, representational forms, or institutional forms from diverse methodological, practical, and theoretical vantage points. They might examine forms and practices of public scholarship and the theories, histories, and systems of thought that shape and illuminate public culture and public scholarship. Workshops should encourage comparative, interdisciplinary, and cross-institutional interchange and reflection that bring into conversation public scholarship in Africa, creative cultural production, and critical theory. Workshop budgets will vary depending on proposed plans; the maximum award is ZAR 75,000.

Workshop Themes and Formats: Working with a different focus each year, the ACIP Workshop will facilitate and energise conversations among scholars and practitioners drawn from universities, museums, and other cultural organisations, seeking to bridge institutional silos and boundaries. The ACIP Workshop should help place research and public scholarship within broader frames, work against institutional isolation, facilitate collaborative research relations and discussions, and build a cohort of scholars and practitioners who talk across fields, across generations, and across institutions. Proposed Workshops will be selected with an eye to cultivating these goals.

Proposed Workshop themes should focus on issues and questions that foster critical examination and debate about forms, practices, and institutions of public culture. Themes should be addressed from multiple orientations and disciplines, include comparative perspectives, and be situated in relation to concepts and theories from relevant fields. Workshops should be planned to engage participants across different institutions of public culture, including universities, museums, arts and culture organisations, NGOs, or others appropriate to the topic. Abstracts for previously funded ACIP Workshops are available here. 

The Workshop might use a range of formats as appropriate. Examples of formats that might be proposed or combined:

• a standard workshop of 2-3 days, with specific sessions, presentations, discussants, pre-circulated papers or readings, etc. Variations on this format might also be introduced. Preferred timing for such workshops is March 2024.
• a working group of colleagues and postgraduate students drawn from across institutions that meet regularly over several weeks or months to discuss common readings and work in progress; visitors who work on the group’s central theme and issues might be invited to give public lectures, participate in group meetings, mentor students, etc.
• a collaborative teaching programme with a common postgraduate course, or module of a course, taught in parallel at different universities with various modes of coordination and interaction, with participants coming together for a 1 day workshop at the end.
• a distinguished scholar or cultural practitioner invited as a short-term Public Scholar in Residence (PSR) to bring fresh, comparative perspectives to particular issues and debates through public lectures, participation in a standard workshop, consultations with colleagues at institutions of public culture, and meetings with students supported by ACIP’s Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards. The visitor might also contribute to courses as appropriate.

Workshop organisers will work through the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape for basic financial administration and are responsible for complying with CHR policies. Workshop organisers should submit a letter from the host institution, centre, programme, or department confirming that appropriate administrative and institutional support will be available.

We ask Workshop organisers to incorporate appropriate modes of participation for postgraduate students holding current Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards from ACIP so that they have opportunities to consult with Workshop participants. Prior holders of Ivan Karp awards may also wish to attend and we encourage organisers to include students from a range of higher education institutions.

Who Should Apply: Applications may be submitted by experienced scholars and cultural practitioners based in universities, museums, and other cultural organisations in South Africa who are interested in creating or reinvigorating interdisciplinary, cross-institutional engagement and understanding and who are committed to training the next generations of scholar-practitioners. Applications may be submitted by a single individual or a pair of individuals who have different institutional affiliations and bring different perspectives, approaches, or specialisations to the proposed Workshop theme.

How to Apply: Interested applicants should submit the following as a single file attachment with documents in the order listed:

• completed cover sheet (form below and as last page of Workshop application information at http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html, under ACIP Opportunities) 
• abstract of the proposed Workshop theme, focus, and plan (250 word max.)
• two to three page statement defining the proposed Workshop theme and focus, its significance, the questions and issues it addresses, and how it relates to the African Critical Inquiry Programme. The statement should also describe the Workshop format and why it will be effective.
• list of proposed participants with their affiliations, brief bios and descriptions of how their work relates to the Workshop
• plan of work and schedule for organising the Workshop
• preliminary Workshop budget that explains and justifies expenses
• two page curriculum vitae (for each organiser)
• institutional letter of commitment to host the Workshop. Please describe available administrative-logistical support in this letter and/or your work plan
• two external reference letters addressing the significance of the proposed Workshop and appropriateness of the format and plan should be submitted directly to the Selection Committee.

The Workshop theme description and plan of work should specify topics or sessions to be included, address the nature and value of the interdisciplinary and cross-institutional exchange to be undertaken, and indicate whether particular outcomes or products are envisioned. It should be written in a way that will be accessible to non-specialist reviewers.

Each Workshop may apply for up to ZAR 75,000. to support Workshop activities and planning. Applicants need not apply for the full amount. Funds may be used to pay honoraria, cover out of town participants’ travel costs, purchase materials, establish a website, promote Workshop activities, hire a student assistant to help with organisation, and cover other related expenses. Workshops are strongly encouraged to supplement the ACIP funding with other sources of support.

Selection Criteria: All proposals will be reviewed by the ACIP Selection Committee; successful applicants will be notified as soon as possible after the closing date so they may begin planning for the Workshop. An award will be made only if applications of appropriate merit and relevance are received. Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:

Conceptualisation: Does the proposed Workshop identify and address significant themes, questions, and issues concerning the roles and practices of public culture, public cultural institutions, and various forms of public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa? Does it combine disciplines and create cross-institutional conversations in new and/or interesting ways? Does it explain how the proposed Workshop relates to research in relevant fields? How are comparative dimensions incorporated into the Workshop? How will the proposed Workshop develop cross-generational relations and conversations? Will the Workshop make possible new forms of knowledge, innovative approaches, or new kinds of exchange?

Appropriateness: Does the proposed Workshop theme relate to questions and issues relevant to African Critical Inquiry? Are the Workshop plan and proposed set of participants appropriate, well thought out, and likely to be productive?

Workshop organiser(s): What qualifications and experience do applicants bring to organising the Workshop, including previous administration/organisation and interdisciplinary and cross-institutional engagements? How do the training, backgrounds, and approaches of a pair of applicants complement one another in formulating Workshop plans?

Impact: Will the proposed Workshop and design be effective in addressing the theme and foster interdisciplinary, cross-institutional, and cross-generational debate and engagement?

Applicants who organise an African Critical Inquiry Programme Workshop must acknowledge the support in all Workshop materials and in any publications that result and indicate affiliation with ACIP and the Centre for Humanities Research. After completing the workshop, they must submit a final report and a financial report.

Closing date: Applications and referees’ letters must be received by Monday 1 May 2023. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Please submit materials as a single file attachment with documents in the order listed above. Applications should be sent by email to acip.uwc@gmail.com with the heading “ACIP 2024 Workshop Proposal.”

Supported by funding from the Ivan Karp and Corinne Kratz Fund

http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html  

https://www.facebook.com/ivan.karp.corinne.kratz.fund

The Council for Museum Anthropology Business Meeting will take place on Zoom from 2-4 pm PST on Saturday Nov 12, 2022. Meeting open to all members.

Register for the meeting here.

Any members with Agenda items, or business items, are asked to email these to the CMA: council.museumanth@gmail.com

The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (MMA) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) seeks a NAGPRA Coordinator to oversee compliance, consultations, repatriations, and other activities associated with ensuring the Museum’s compliance the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. We seek a dynamic professional with significant experience in NAGPRA compliance to help steward MMA’s NAGPRA efforts. Founded in 1932, the Maxwell Museum holds large anthropological collections in four collecting divisions (archaeology, ethnology, osteology and archives), with particular strengths in scholarship and research in the US Southwest. The Museum is strongly committed to fulfilling the ethical and legal requirements of NAGPRA; fostering strong collaborative relationships with Native American communities; the respectful curation of Indigenous cultural collections; and the repatriation of ancestral human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony as specified in 43 CFR Part 10. The successful candidate will join a dedicated team of museum professionals working to document and care for collections, support appropriate collection-based research and teaching in a vibrant university setting, build collaborations with source and descendent communities, and support an active program of public engagement.