Anthropology, Museums and the Body: Lessons from an Experimental Teaching Environment

Authors

  • Gwyneira Isaac Smithsonian Institution
  • Kate Clark Anacortes Museum
  • Kelsey Adams George Washington University
  • Heather Ashe George Washington University
  • Katie Benz Phillips Collection
  • Delaney Cummings George Washington University
  • Francine Margolis George Washington University
  • David Gassett American Museum of Natural History
  • Amanda Quink George Washington University
  • Emily Somberg George Washington University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v17i3.2874

Keywords:

interdisciplinary teaching, the body, ethics

Abstract

With increased interests in solving complex problems through interdisciplinary research—how best can museums engage with and benefit from such an approach? At the same time, how can we address critical questions, methods, and ethics surrounding the study of humans within museums? In order to engage with these questions, an interdisciplinary group of curators, artists and students worked together at the Smithsonian Institution to create an experimental teaching environment to rethink the disciplinary boundaries around the study of the human body. Our aim was to use a range of anthropological, art and science collections and readings to tackle issues such as race, gender, genetics, and disability, and the historic inequities resulting from colonialism. We discuss here this endeavor, including the public program we developed—the Face Cast Lab—as well as lessons learned about who affects change through this type of museum-based teaching. 

Author Biographies

Gwyneira Isaac, Smithsonian Institution

Gwyneira Isaac (D.Phil. Oxford University) is the Curator of North American Ethnology at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Her research looks at how culturally different knowledge systems intersect through social institutions like anthropological and tribal museums. Central to this research is her book, Mediating Knowledges: Origins of a Museum for the Zuni People (2007), which examines the challenges faced by Zunis who had to negotiate the differences between Zuni and Anglo-American approaches to knowledge. Currently, she is researching the history of face casting in the 19th and 20th century and the intersecting histories with which these now engage—especially where descendant communities, cultural and physical anthropologists and museums must reconcile the complex legacies of these duplicated bodies. 

Kate Clark, Anacortes Museum

Kate Clark (MFA, University of California, San Diego) directs the public art program Parkeology. Parkeology excavates and interprets lesser known social histories of public spaces through designing collaborative art projects. Parkeology has created immersive concerts in pipe organ amphitheaters, border tours in trolley systems, and live workshops in museum rotundas. Clark is currently working on a large-scale commission for the City of Seattle about creative urban design and an immersive installation about LGBTQ oral histories for the Oakland Museum of California.

Kelsey Adams, George Washington University

Kelsey Adams graduated in 2018 with her Master’s degree in Anthropology with a Museum Training Concentration from George Washington University. Her research and interests include repatriation, museum anthropology, collections management, and museum education.

Heather Ashe, George Washington University

Heather Ashe has a Bachelor’s of Art from Skidmore College and a Masters of Art from George Washington University, completing her degree in the field of Museum Studies. She is currently a representative of the Asian Art Department at Oakridge Auction Gallery. 

Katie Benz, Phillips Collection

Katie Benz holds a Bachelor’s of Art in Anthropology with a minor in Studio Art from the University of Notre Dame. In May of 2018, she received her Master’s from The George Washington University’s Museum Studies Program with a concentration in exhibitions and visitor engagement. Her research interests include the repatriation of Nazi-era looted artwork and cultural objects from Native American communities. Currently, she is working as a museum assistant at the Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art.  

Delaney Cummings, George Washington University

Delaney Cummings is a Museum Studies Master’s student at George Washington University, with research interests in collections management for history museums and presidential libraries. She is currently working as an intern in the collections department at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. 

Francine Margolis, George Washington University

Francine Margolis is currently a Master’s Degree Candidate at GWU. Her focus is bioarchaeology and osteology. This past summer she spent five weeks in Denmark excavating a cemetery from the medieval period. 

David Gassett, American Museum of Natural History

David Gassett graduated in May 2018 from the George Washington University with a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology and a concentration in Museum Training. His interests focus on museum studies, indigenous studies, and the transformation of knowledge around material culture. At the time of the submission of this paper, he was finishing a North American Ethnology internship with the American Museum of Natural History.

 

Amanda Quink, George Washington University

Amanda Quink is a second-year graduate student at George Washington University in the Museum Studies Program. It is my goal to continue my career in collections management at a historic house museum or similar setting. I am currently working with the National Woman's Party to catalog pieces of their collection to prepare for a large restoration project.

Emily Somberg, George Washington University

Emily Somberg is pursuing a Master’s in Sociocultural Anthropology at The George Washington University. Her research focuses primarily on how concepts and ideologies of race and identity are produced, negotiated, and layered within social and urban spaces. Emily is currently working on an ethnography of a Parisian suburb.

Additional Files

Published

03/28/2020

How to Cite

Isaac, G., Clark, K., Adams, K., Ashe, H., Benz, K., Cummings, D., … Somberg, E. (2020). Anthropology, Museums and the Body: Lessons from an Experimental Teaching Environment. Museum & Society, 17(3), 472–493. https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v17i3.2874

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 3 (2019): On the Properties of Things: Collective Knowledge and the Objects of the Museum

Section

Supplement

License

Copyright remains with the author(s) of the article. This article can be re-used according to the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0  licence.