The 2018 Summer Institute will be hosted by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody is the oldest anthropology museum in the Americas and one of the largest, with approximately one million objects from around the world, 2,500 paintings, some 300,000 photographic images, and extensive archival records. It is adjacent to the Tozzer Anthropology Library.
Taking the Peabody as a case study, the Institute will encourage students to think critically about the history and changing role of museums, understand how they function, and appreciate the value of collections as primary sources and as heritage resources. Focusing on issues in the entangled history of museums and Indigenous peoples, we will explore the influence of Indigenous communities on practices of management and curation, including repatriation and implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and demonstrate developing models of collaboration. We will consider diverse institutional modes of representing Indigenous histories, cultures, and identities by analyzing exhibits at the Peabody, an art museum, and a historic site. We will explore theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding objects. Students will use these resources and experiences to understand selected objects and collections at the Peabody, and will present their research at the NCAIS Graduate Student Conference immediately following the Institute. Time will be reserved for independent archival research.
Faculty: Dr. Patricia Capone, Curator and Director of Repatriation and Research; Dr. Castle McLaughlin, Curator of North American Ethnography, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Institute Participants:
Katharine M. Williams, University of New Mexico
Alana Faagai, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Molli A. Pauliot, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Randizia B. Chrisostomo, University of Washington
Summer S. Sutton, Yale University
Michael J. Albani, Michigan State University
Sarah A. Sadlier, Harvard University
Caitrin Scarlett Engle, University of Colorado- Boulder
Victoria M. Funk, University of Oklahoma
Franchesca Hebert-Spence, University of Winnipeg
Agleska E. (Rebecca) Cohen-Rencountre, University of Minnesota
Bruno W. Seraphin, Cornell University
Bethany Eby, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign