Position Summary
Responsible for organizing and curating the Department’s legacy collections of artifacts and human remains according to professional standards. Beyond organizing and improving the curation of the collections, the goal of the collection manager’s activities will be to gather information on the provenience of human remains and artifacts that will be used to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal regulations and ethical standards. The collections manager will be expected to work independently under the Chair of the Anthropology department or her designee.
Job Description
Primary Duties & Responsibilities
Curation
- Creates an inventory of all cultural and human remains held by the Anthropology department.
- Creates a strong records management system by organizing and digitizing existing documentation and creating a database for these records.
- Implements state-of-the-art curation methods.
- Responsible for selecting and ordering conservation materials, and oversees the transfer of the collections to new curatorial facilities when necessary.
Research
- Responsible for basic provenience research, including ascertaining where, when, and how human remains and artifacts were collected.
- Ascertains whether human remains and artifacts are part of larger collections that are partially curated elsewhere and/or reconstruct the chain of custody for collections that were obtained from other institutions or entities.
Reporting
- Provides quarterly written updates about project progress to the Chair of Anthropology and the collections committee.
Performs other duties as assigned.
Preferred Qualifications
- M.A/M.S in Anthropology, Museum Studies, or related fields or previous experience working in museums or collection management.
- Excellent organizational skills.
- Ability to communicate effectively.
- Experience in curating human remains and cultural artifacts.
- Experience creating or maintaining databases in a museum context.
- Knowledge of laws and regulations governing archaeology and cultural heritage.
- Knowledge of Indigenous history and archaeology in the United States.
- Experience conducting independent research in archaeology or biological anthropology.
Required Qualifications
- B.A/B.S. degree in Anthropology, Museum Studies, or related fields.
- Demonstrated training and experience in creating or maintaining databases, curation, and human osteology.
- Understanding of how to respectfully handle ancestral remains and funerary objects, andknowledge of eastern North American archaeology and Indigenous history.
