NSF Award
2317314
Anthropology collections housed by museums have been assembled to document world cultures, present the evidential basis of research conclusions, and support future anthropological inquiry. The Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution is an intensive four-week program to train graduate students and faculty to use museum objects in research in cultural anthropology. During SIMA, participants learn to analyze museum collections in the context of current research interests in anthropology using a range of qualitative and quantitative methods and approaches. SIMA takes advantage of the Smithsonian Institution’s vast anthropological collections and related resources in constituent museums, allowing participants hands-on experience working with museum specimens on individual projects that lead to dissertation and research projects as well as new teaching curricula. SIMA treats the museum as an ethnographic field site and focuses on experiential learning, combining elements of a field school with formal classroom lessons. This program trains numerous graduate students and faculty in scientific cultural anthropology and generates resources that support anthropological research for a broad range of scholars.<br/><br/>Current trends in cultural anthropology have stimulated a revitalized interest in anthropological objects (artifacts, audio recordings, drawings, still and moving images) and museum collections are increasingly being recognized as a source of rich cultural data. However, many potential researchers cannot effectively use museum collections because they lack the skills and methods to approach or evaluate this type of data. While theoretical trends shift in anthropology, these collections are critical data sets that can address new research questions and answers. Training in museum-based research is rare and seldom can offer the hands-on learning that is essential for object study. SIMA is designed to increase productive use of museum collections and allow cultural anthropology to capitalize on the investment made by former generations. In addition, it seeks to promote and engage in research of interest and value to the communities where this material originated, and thus demonstrate the value of cultural anthropology methodologies to a wide range of scientific, social science and humanistic disciplines.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
