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Posts from the ‘Council for Museum Anthropology’ Category

Oct 24

Council for Museum Anthropology Call for Co-editor: Museum Anthropology

The Council for Museum Anthropology (CMA) invites applications for the next Co-editor of the section’s peer reviewed academic journal, Museum Anthropology. The three-year term runs from January 2026 through December 2028. Please contact journal co-editor Johanna Zetterstrom- Sharp (j.zetterstrom-sharp@ucl.ac.uk) or CMA President Christina J. Hodge (christina_hodge@brown.edu) to discuss this opportunity. Please submit a letter of interest indicating your experience and ideas for the journal, along with a recent CV, to Hodge by 31 December 2025. [RFP continues after the image]

The Journal: Over its 50-year history, Museum Anthropology (MA) has become a leading voice for scholarly research on the collection, interpretation, and representation of the material world and global cultures. Through critical articles, provocative commentaries, thoughtful book and exhibit reviews, and new publishing formats, this peer reviewed journal reflects the diverse, vibrant, global, and transdisciplinary work of museums. Situated at the intersection of practice and theory, MA advances our knowledge of the ways in which material objects are intertwined with living histories of cultural display, economics, socio-politics, law, memory, ethics, colonialism, heritage, conservation, and education.

MA is published by Wiley-Blackwell through the end of 2027. CMA is actively negotiating for a new press and contract, which will start in 2028.

The Role: MA editors have independent editorial responsibility for the journal. MA is produced by two co-editors with staggered three-year terms, ensuring continuity of knowledge and production and shared responsibilities. MA is supported by an editorial board of six international scholars in museum anthropology and allied disciplines.

The incoming MA Co-editor will contribute to the publication of a journal that enriches and diversifies scholarly and professional museum settings by: (1) soliciting and evaluating high-quality manuscripts and peer-reviews from a diversity of experts in relevant fields; (2) maintaining academically rigorous and ethical standards of publication, as well as timely management of review, submission, and publication processes; (3) constructively working with AAA and press staff, as well as the MA editorial board and CMA leadership.

The Co-editors serve as non-voting members of the CMA Board, participate in quarterly Board Meetings, and provide annual reports to CMA’s members at its annual Business Meeting (held at the AAA annual meeting). Co-editor is not a paid position, but financial support typically includes some travel expenses to the AAA meeting and some copyediting services.

Full responsibilities of the Editors are outlined in the CMA’s By-Laws: https://museumanthropology.org/about/cma-bylaws/. More about the journal can be found here: https://museumanthropology.org/journal/.

Jul 8

Time to get the CMA Book Award nominations in!

Council for Museum Anthropology logo for promoting the CMA Book Award nomination process. Details on the award are given as text in this post.

Book Award

The Council for Museum Anthropology Book Award was created to recognize and promote excellence in museum anthropology. The award is awarded to a scholar within the field of museum anthropology for a solo, co- or multi-authored book published up to five years prior to the award date, and will be considered for the award 2 years after nomination. Edited books will not be considered.

Nomination Packets

To nominate a book, please send a signed letter of nomination to the Chair of the Book Award Committee. Only individuals, not organizations or publishers, are eligible to nominate books for the CMA Book Award. The letter of nomination should speak to the impact of the book on the field of museum anthropology and needs to be by a current CMA member. Self-nomination is not permitted, and works must have an accompanying letter of nomination to be considered. Please arrange to have the publisher send a copy of the book directly to each member of the Selection Committee. Books must be received by the deadline. Applicants will be notified in October as to the results.

Evaluation Criteria

The CMA Book Award will be given to the author(s) whose work is judged to be a significant and influential contribution to museum anthropology.

Books that did not receive the award but are considered exceptional will receive honorable mentions at the award ceremony at the AAA Annual Meeting.

Details: https://museumanthropology.org/awards/nominations-and-applications/

Jul 7

August 1 Deadline! Council for Museum Anthropology Student Travel Award

The image is promotional, featuring the Council for Museum Anthropology logo. The award details are given in the text of this blog post.

Student Travel Award

The CMA Student Travel Awards are designed to support graduate student travel to the annual AAA meeting to present papers and/or posters. Students and recent graduate degree recipients (those who have defended within the year of the award) are eligible to apply. Each year, CMA will award two prizes of $1000 each.

Application Packets

Application packets (maximum 5 pages) must include: a brief letter indicating the applicant’s student status and explaining how this project reflects the student’s graduate work; a copy of the abstract for the proposed paper or poster (and for the session in which they will be presenting, if known); and a letter of endorsement from an academic advisor at the student’s most recent institution of study.

Evaluation Criteria

  1. Creativity: Is the paper or poster a unique and novel contribution to museum anthropology?
  2. Commitment: Does the student demonstrate a commitment to the field of museum anthropology?
  3. Impact: Does the paper or poster have the potential to develop into a work that could more broadly impact the field of museum anthropology?

Student Travel Award recipients will be presented with a check for $1000 and a certificate of the award.

Jun 19

2025 Council for Museum Anthropology: Lifetime Achievement/Distinguished Service Award

The Council for Museum Anthropology is seeking nominations for its Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes CMA members whose careers demonstrate extraordinary achievements that have advanced museum anthropology. These achievements might include collections work, community collaborations, exhibitions, publications, public programming and outreach, teaching, policy development, etc. While many anthropologists distinguish themselves through their works, this award is meant to single out those who, over the course of their careers, have truly helped to define and or reshape the field of anthropology in and of museums. Nominees are expected to have spent at least 20 years working in the field of museum anthropology. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2025.

For more information on the nomination process for the the Distinguished Service Award and for information on other CMA awards, visit our website: https://museumanthropology.org/awards/nominations-and-applications/

Nov 17

2024 Council for Museum Anthropology Awards

I happily share the following CMA announcement:

2024 COUNCIL FOR MUSEUM ANTHROPOLOGY AWARDS

We’re delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Council for Museum Anthropology awards!! We thank the CMA Awards Committee (Lijun Zhang (Chair), Jason Jackson, Amanda Guzman, Sowparnika Balaswaminathan), and the CMA Book Award Committee (Cara Krmpotich (Chair), Molli Pauliot, Lijun Zhang) for their dedicated work on this.

[CMA@AAA Award Ceremony Details Omitted]

CMA STUDENT TRAVEL AWARDS:

Congratulations to this year’s CMA Student Travel award recipients, Amanda Sorensen and Haley Bryant!

The CMA Student Travel Awards are awarded to students who are going to present papers or posters at AAA meeting that present novel contribution to museum anthropology and have the potential to develop into works that could more broadly impact the field.

Amanda Sorensen and Haley Bryant have co-organized a panel for the 2024 AAA meeting which explores software and technologies used in museum practice. In the panel, Sorensen and Bryant will present papers to discuss digital technologies, software development, human labor, anthropological archives, and museum practice.    

CMA MICHAEL AMES AWARD FOR INNOVATIVE MUSEUM ANTHROPOLOGY:

We are excited to share the news that the 2024 CMA Michael M. Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology is awarded to the exhibition project Mnaajtood ge Mnaadendaan: Miigwewinan Michi Saagiig Kwewag Miinegoowin Gimaans Zhaganaash Aki 1860 / To Honour and Respect: Gifts from the Michi Saagiig Women to the Prince of Wales, 1860. The project researches on and displays baskets made by women at what is now Hiawatha First Nation (HFN) in Ontario and gifted to the Prince of Wales in 1860. The exhibition enables Michi Saagiig community members to reconnect with their ancestors and visit their creations.

Congratulations to the co-curators Lori Beavis and Laura Peers as well as the HFN community members who have been involved in the project. See their amazing work here: https://www.tohonourandrespect.ca/

CMA BOOK AWARD

The CMA Book Award for 2024 is awarded to Balgo: Creating Country by John Carty, published by University of Western Australia Publishing in 2021.

The Nomination for Balgo: Creating Country highlights Carty’s skill in combining a rich ethnographic account with the methods of art history and an appreciation of the importance of collections and archives. Drawing on vast sources, Carty studies Balgo art from various perspectives, including art history, anthropology, economics, religious study, statistics, and gender studies. Balgo: Creating Country seamlessly integrates an art historical understanding cultivated through the study of changing forms over time with an understanding of the social processes represented in those changes, made known through sustained and ethical research relationships.

Balgo: Creating Country is the fruit of years of original research with close and insightful examination of Balgo art, history, individual experiences, community life, and the living world. It situates desert art and the creative process in complex historical, economic, and political dynamics. Balgo: Creating Country successfully navigates the scale of art practices, attending to over 15,000 artworks all the while being attentive to the artists at a very human scale. A distinguishing and innovative aspect of the book is Carty’s use of kinship relationships and kin diagrams to analyse and demonstrate the aesthetic and stylistic relationships between paintings over time.

CMA’s Book Award Committee wholeheartedly agreed with the Nomination that Balgo: Creating Country “exemplifies the unique contribution museum anthropology as a discipline is able to make to the understanding of world art, by challenging received Western categories yet at the same time bringing different art histories into dialogue with one another.”

Upon learning of the Award, Balgo artists shared this message with CMA:

“We are very proud of this book, and we are happy that other people can see its importance through this award. Our art is more than art, more than painting, it is our Country – who we are as people. It takes a lot to see what we are painting. This book tells that story: from the early days before whitefellas, to the mission days, and now today, where we are strong people who have built a new life for ourselves in Balgo. That’s what’s in our painting. It’s a big book, but it tells an even bigger story. (Warlayirti Artists, Balgo, Australia.)”

This image is of the cover of the book Balgo: Creating County by John Carty. There is no graphic elements on the cover except the text fonts and coloration. The text is bold and capitalized in pink and yellow on dark yellow.

[CMA@AAA Award Ceremony Details Omitted]

For more information on CMA’s annual awards: https://museumanthropology.org/awards/nominations-and-applications/