On OA Book Pubishing at the University of Ottawa Press
For news of OA book pubishing at the University of Ottawa Press, see: http://poynder.blogspot.com/2010/08/university-of-ottawa-press-launches-oa.html
Oct 2
Oct 2
Congratulations to Curtis Ashton!
Congratulations go to Dr. Curtis Ashton who very successfully defended his Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation in folklore today. The title of his important and innovative study is: Interpretive Policy Analysis in Beijing’s Ethnographic Museums: Implementing Cultural Policy for the 2008 “People’s Olympics”. I hope that everyone will be reading it as a book very soon. In addition to finalizing his dissertation, Curtis has been teaching a course in museum anthropology at Brigham Young University.
Sep 30
Congratulations to Virginia Luehrsen!
Congratulation to Virginia Luehrsen on the successfully passing her folklore M.A. oral exams today. While a student at Indiana, Virginia pursued the joint M.L.S. degree in our School of Library and Information Science and M.A. in folklore in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. Her thesis project, which was discussed extensively in today’s exam, is a study of intangible cultural heritage issues in libraries. She builds upon work undertaken in ethnographic museum contexts (by museum anthropologists, indigenous activists and others) carrying the insights and experiences found in this domain into the neighboring–but less well developed–domain of library collections, including library special collections and archives. Virginia is already a doctoral student in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. At UT, she is studying with my friend and collaborator Patricia K. Galloway and is the co-organizer of the recent Engaging in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (EPOCH) conference. Well done Virginia!
Open Folklore at the IU Statewide Information Technology Conference #switc10
Just a quick note to record my appreciation for everyone involved in organizing the Indiana University Statewide Information Technology Conference. This was my second year attending and my second year presenting at the conference and it is a really great event. Today I spoke on behalf of the Open Folklore project team, describing the goals of the project and where we stand in addressing them. Everyone was really nice and it was good to have an additional chance to articulate what the project is and where it is headed as the team prepares to unveil the associated portal site at the upcoming American Folklore Society meetings in Nashville in October. Thanks to all the Open Folklore project team members for your support and your good work.
[New, Open Access] Culture Archives and the State: Between Nationalism, Socialism, and the Global Market
From a CFS News Release:
The Center for Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University is delighted to announce the online publication of
Culture Archives and the State: Between Nationalism, Socialism, and the Global Market
Proceedings of an international conference held May 3-5, 2007, at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus. Ohio.
Columbus: The OSU Knowledge Bank, 2010. https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/handle/1811/46896
The papers address the political uses of ethnographic archives from the late nineteenth century to the present. Archives keep tabs on populations, define and discipline national identities, shape and censor public memories, but also shelter discredited alternative accounts for future recovery. Today their contents and uses are tensely negotiated between states, scholars, and citizens as folklore archives become key resources for the reconstruction of lifeworlds in transition.
Case studies and reports come from China, India (Bengal), Afghanistan, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Romania, Croatia, the US, and the German-speaking lands.
In a keynote address, Regina Bendix provides a general account of “property and propriety” in archival practice.
Klassen, Ingalsbe Awarded Research Support
Congratulation to Teri Klassen on being named the IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology’s Harry M. and Alma Egan Hyatt Graduate Fellow for 2010-2011. Teri is completing work on her dissertation, a historical and material culture studies focused project that explores quilting by African American and European American members of a rural community in western Tennessee.
Congratulations to Suzanne Ingalsbe on being awarded a travel grant from the Council for Museum Anthropology. This CMA funding will help Suzanne attend the 2010 American Anthropological Association meetings in New Orleans in November. At these meetings she will present collections and archival research that she conducted at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. The focus is on so-called “prayer rugs” in the NMNH Collection, particularly those collected for the museum by Ethel-Jane Westfeldt Bunting. Suzanne is a doctoral student in the IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology focused on the architecture and material culture of religious spaces vis-a-vis museum spaces.
Great News: Traditional Arts Indiana Brings Bluegrass to DC
This is an IU Press release from here:
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Not Too Bad Bluegrass Band has been selected to represent Indiana’s vibrant tradition of bluegrass music in the nation’s capital. Based in southern Indiana, the band will perform at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., as part of the center’s 2010 Homegrown Concert Series.
Jon Kay, folklorist and director of Traditional Arts Indiana, will introduce the band to new audiences at their two D.C. performances. A nonprofit partnership between Indiana University and the Indiana Arts Commission, TAI’s mission is to document, preserve, and promote Indiana traditional arts.
TAI is a statewide folk arts program that exists to identify, document, preserve and present Indiana’s traditions. The organization and its supporters are pleased to see the Not Too Bad Bluegrass Band perform at these two high-profile venues, Kay said.
The band emerged out of a weekly jam session and has included some of the finest musicians in Indiana. Founding members Brian Lappin and Doug Harden lend their virtuoso banjo and mandolin picking to the solid bass-playing of Greg Norman, the sweet fiddling of Kent Todd, and the masterful guitar of Brady Stogdill.
Each band member traces a different path into bluegrass, through families, friends and festivals. The Not Too Bad Bluegrass Band continues to meld inspired instrumental and vocal harmonies. At performances they are always prepared to take audience requests, following in the tradition of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe.
Their 2010 CD, Head Full of Memories, pays tribute to classic bluegrass songs and includes original music invoking love, whiskey and memories of home. A copy of this recording, along with an interview with the band, will be deposited into the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.
The band’s concerts in D.C. will take place at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 13, at the Coolidge Auditorium at the American Folklife Center and at 6 p.m. the same day at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Both events are free and open to the public.
There will be a welcome home celebration at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 5. The event will be held at the IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology’s Lecture and Performance Hall (formerly the Indiana Avenue Church of Christ) at 800 N. Indiana Ave. in Bloomington. All are welcome to attend this free event.
The Wolfsonian–FIU Fellowship Program
Re-posted…
The Wolfsonian–Florida International University is a museum and research center that promotes the examination of modern visual and material culture. The Wolfsonian’s fellowship program is intended to support research on the museum’s collection, generally for periods of three to four weeks. The program is open to holders of master’s or doctoral degrees, Ph.D.candidates, and others who have a significant record of professional achievement in relevant fields.
The focus of the Wolfsonian collection is on North American and European decorative arts, propaganda, architecture, and industrial and graphic design from the period 1885–1945. The United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands are the countries most extensively represented. There are also smaller but significant collections of materials from a number of other countries, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Japan, the former Soviet Union, and Hungary. The collection includes works on paper (including posters, prints, and design drawings), furniture, paintings, sculpture, glass, textiles, ceramics, lighting and other appliances, and many other kinds of objects. The Wolfsonian’s library has approximately 50,000 rare books, periodicals, and ephemeral items.
Applicants are encouraged to discuss their project with the museum staff prior to submission to ensure the relevance of their proposals to The Wolfsonian’s collection. For more information about The Wolfsonian and its collection, visit the website at http://www.wolfsonian.fiu.edu, call 305-535-2686, or email to research@thewolf.fiu.edu. Applications for the 2011–12 academic year must be postmarked by December 31, 2010.
Lisa Li
lisa@thewolf.fiu.edu
Mediterranean Treasures: Selections from the Classics Collection [at SNOMNH]
I am excited to share news of an upcoming exhibition at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Opening October 2 and continuing through January 2, 2011 is Mediterranean Treasures: Selections from the Classics Collection. At SNOMNH, the museum’s significant Classical Archaeology collections are steward by the Division of Ethnology (led by my friend and collaborator Daniel C. Swan). This new show has been curated by the division’s talented collections manager (and old world archaeology specialist) Kathryn Barr. Describing the exhibition’s orienting framework, the exhibition release quotes her noting:
“In developing this exhibit we faced a challenge on how to incorporate a number of different cultures and time periods,” explained Kathryn Barr, exhibit curator and manager of the ethnology collection at the museum. “Ultimately we decided that rather than focusing on the differences between these groups we would highlight their shared technologies. The Mediterranean Sea provided the perfect stage for this exhibit, as it was truly a focal point for the cultures we wanted to highlight. For centuries the region surrounding this body of water has been an area of great diversity, but it has also been an important melting pot as well. Many of the great civilizations of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East developed along its shores and each one influenced the others.”
As discussed in the full release (available here), this will be the museum’s most ambitious exhibition from the Classics Collection and the first major exhibition of the collection staged in the museum’s impressive new facility.
While we are thinking about the SNOMNH Classics collections, I can also note the small digital exhibition that then-graduate assistant Rhonda S. Fair built during my time as SNOMNH Assistant Curator of Ethnology. Found here, it presents the museum’s Mark Allen Everett Collection of Ancient Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Pottery.
SNOMNH C-2001-1-7
New Issue of Museum Anthropology Focuses on NAGPRA
Congratulations to the contributors to, and editors of, the new issue of Museum Anthropology, which has just appeared online in Wiley Online Library. The issue focuses specifically on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA).
Shreds and Patches 