Scholars, authors and artists from different countries who are experimenting different ways to move beyond the material, archival, and philosophical terms of museum objects.
Duane Jethro
University of Cape Town
Duane Jethro is a Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Curating the Archive in the Michaelis School of Fine Art, and an Associate Research Fellow at the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative, both at the University of Cape Town. His work focuses on the cultural construction of heritage and contested public cultures, across the disciplines of religious studies, heritage and museum studies, and anthropology. His current project is a multiperspectival investigation of the loss and salvage of the University of Cape Town Jagger Library and its collections after a devastating fire in April 2021. He investigates the variable interpolations of loss and the multiple meanings of recovery that arise at the site.
He has been a researcher at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage, CARMAH, at the Humboldt University, founded and directed by Professor Sharon Macdonald. He previously held a Georg Forster Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral research fellowship between 2017 and 2019, also based at CARMAH.
A graduate of the University of Utrecht, he has published in the International Journal of Heritage Studies, Material Religion, African Diaspora and Tourist Studies. He is an editor of the journal Material Religion and serves on the editorial board of the journal Museums and Social Issues. His book Heritage Formation and the Senses in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Aesthetics of Power (2020) is a cultural history of heritage and sense making in the post-apartheid dispensation.
The Township in the Humboldt Forum
@Heritage_Things
Photo: © Duane Jethro
Tehmina Goskar FMA
Curatorial Research Centre
Dr. Tehmina Goskar has been a curator and historian for over 20 years, working in the UK public museum and gallery sector making exhibitions, doing research and training new curators. She is a Fellow of the Museums Association. Her PhD was in early medieval material culture (University of Southampton, 2009). In 2022 she will be the Art Fund Headley Fellow at the Museum of Cornish Life where she will be examining the institution’s and collections’ histories. She is also a Parsi Zoroastrian and has long wanted to bring her personal lived experience and professional experiences together by looking anew at ancient Persian material culture from a Zoroastrian perspective.
curatorialresearch.com
@CuratorialRC
Photo: © Tehmina Goskar
Diana K. Moreiras Reynaga
University of British Columbia
Dr. Diana K. Moreiras Reynaga is a Research Associate and Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and a collaborator in the Templo Mayor Project (INAH), directed by Dr. López Luján. Moreiras Reynaga is a Mesoamerican bioarchaeologist and archaeologist, originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. She received her PhD in Anthropology at The University of Western Ontario in 2019. She received her BA (2010) and MA (2013) in Anthropology at The University of British Columbia. Her main research interests involve Mesoamerican foodways and diets; residential histories of Mesoamerican populations; Aztec society and religion; the use of animals in Mesoamerican ritual contexts; the origins, spread, and use of Theobroma cacao (chocolate) and maize across the ancient Americas, and Indigenous and decolonial approaches in archaeology. Her research expertise includes the application of biomolecular methods to gain insights about the Indigenous populations of Mesoamerica.
The Maya and the British Museum
Photo: © Diana K. Moreiras Reynaga
Cara G. Tremain
Langara College/ snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓
Dr. Cara Tremain is an instructor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Langara College/ snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓ in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She received her PhD in archaeology from the University of Calgary in 2017, with a focus on ancient Maya dress. She is originally from the UK, and after completing her B.A. at UCL in 2007, she worked in public-facing roles in museums across London — including the British Museum. She has participated in archaeological excavations in Romania, Jordan, and Belize, and has undertaken research in museums in Canada and the United States. Her research focuses on antiquities within museum collections and the auction market, and she is the editor of ‘The Market For Mesoamerica: Reflections On The Sale Of Pre-Columbian Antiquities‘.
The Maya and the British Museum
Photo: © Cara G. Tremain
Daniel Salinas Córdova
Archaeologist, Independent Researcher and Writer
Daniel Salinas is a Mexican archaeologist & historian, who specializes in studying heritage and its relationship to nationalism and tourism. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in History at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and his MA in Archaeology at Leiden University. He is a very active writer and researcher, dedicated to sharing and communicating information about heritage in public arenas.
The Maya and the British Museum
Photo: © Daniel Salinas Córdova
Genner Llanes-Ortíz
Bishop’s University
Dr. Genner Llanes-Ortíz is a Maya scholar from Yucatán, Mexico who is currently an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in the Department of Sociology at Bishop’s University (Quebec, Canada). He trained as a social anthropologist at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán and completed his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. He specializes in Indigenous art forms and knowledge, and has worked in collaboration with numerous Indigenous organizations, communities, and NGOs.
The Maya and the British Museum
Photo: © Genner Llanes-Ortíz
Alejandro J. Figeroa
University of Missouri
Dr. Alejandro Figeroa is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeometry Laboratory – MURR at the University of Missouri. Figeroa completed his PhD in Anthropology at Southern Methodist University in 2021. His research focuses on examining how humans interact with and give meaning to their surroundings over long spans of time. He has approached this topic from a variety of perspectives including the paleoenvironmental reconstruction of ancient landscapes and human-environment dynamics, the geoarchaeological analysis of living surfaces, and landscape studies of modern placemaking. Figeroa’s methodological strengths include the analysis and integration of geospatial data, faunal remains, and sedimentary records. Alejandro Figeroa is passionate about teaching and mentorship and committed to engaging with local communities and the broader public through work that is socially relevant and impactful.
The Maya and the British Museum
Photo: © Alejandro J. Figeroa
María Bendito
Universitat de Barcelona
PhD student of Art, Globalization, Interculturality Research Group at the Department of Art History of the University of Barcelona. Graduated in Art History and Master of Advanced Studies in Art History. Currently carrying out a doctoral research entitled Representation, myth and metaphor in the Tower of Babel. From the linguistic configuration of collective identities to the technological identities of globality, in which she develops the conformation of national and digital identities in the historical and global worlds. Author of several articles on the dynamics and meanings of the transformation of art and its new approaches.
https://artglobalizationinterculturality.com
Photo: © María Bendito
Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert
Cyprus University of Technology & CYENS Centre of Excellence
Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert is associate professor at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT). She is the leader of the “Museum Lab” group at CYENS Center of Excellence and the coordinator of “Visual Sociology and Museum Studies Lab” of CUT. Her research and artistic interests include museum studies, photography, visual sociology, and new technologies for museums. She received her PhD in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester (UK) and is the recipient of several scholarships and awards including a Smithsonian Fellowship in Museum Practice (USA), a Fulbright Fellowship (USA) and an Arts and Humanities Research Council Award (UK). Theopisti has published widely on museums and photography and has exhibited her artwork in Cyprus and abroad. She is the author of The Political Museum (Routledge, 2016) and the editor of Museum and Emerging Technologies: Mediating Difficult Heritage (Berghahn Books, 2022), Museums and Photography: Displaying Death (co-editor, Routledge, 2017), Museums and Visitor Photography (MuseumsEtc, 2016), and Photography and Cyprus: Time, Place, Identity (I.B.Tauris/ Routledge, 2014).
Re-framing Photography: The Shadows of the History of Archaeology
Sahar Tavakoli
Cornell University
Sahar Tavakoli is a PhD candidate in Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. Her work to date has been concerned with the ways in which mundane artefacts – such as clinical gowns, food labels, and nameplates – are recruited into more complex processes institutional organisation and governance. She has also worked collaboratively with Persian language scholars in the assemblage of language learning materials. Her response to the question “so what are you” is most often “5 foot 7”. Other applicable responses would be Iranian, Irani-tork, Australian, and Bowie fan.
The Empire Strikes Through: The Drawing and Redrawing of Political Maps in the British Museum
Hooda Shawa
Hooda Shawa is a Kuwaiti/Palestinian writer living in Kuwait. She is the recipient of the Sheikh Zayed book Award for children’s Literature in 2008 as well as Kuwait’s National Prize for Children’s Literature in 2018. Her books include: The Birds’ Journey to Mount Qaf, The Animals’ vs the Humans at the Court of the King of the Jinn, The Yellow Man, The Secret Revealer, The Elephant’s Journey, Apollo on Gaza Beach, The Dragon of Bethlehem. She is the founder of Taqa Productions, which creates and produces Arabic theatrical projects and puppet theatre in Kuwait and the Arab region. Productions include Akhnaton, The Yellow Man, Ikara, and the puppet shows; Elephant in the City and Julnar and the Firebird.
The Lachish Reliefs: Biblical Archaeology in Contested Lands (essay)
The Lachish Reliefs (podcast)
taqaproductions.com
@taqakuwait
Si Xiao
University of Exeter
Si is a third-year PhD candidate in History of Art at the University of Exeter. Before arriving at Exeter, she undertook her Master’s Degree in Museum Studies with a focus on art reproductions at UCL and a Bachelor’s degree from East China Normal University. Trained as a Calligrapher, Si studied Chinese Calligraphy for almost twenty years. This experience enables her to have later working experiences in the museum. Currently, her PhD project attempts to reconstruct the multiple layers of the life of Huangchao liqi tushi (Illustrations of Imperial Ritual Paraphernalia) from Qing period to contemporary contexts.
The Traumatic Past of the Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies
Photo: © Si Xiao
Heba Abd el Gawad
UCL
Heba Abd el Gawad is the research assistant for the AHRC-funded project: Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. She has previously roles co-curating Two Temple Place’s 2016 Beyond Beauty exhibition, project curator of the British Museum’s Asyut Project, and more recently has guest curated Listen to Her! Turning up the Volume on Egypt’s Ordinary Women at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. She specialises in the history of Egyptian archaeology with particular focus on past and present Egyptian perceptions and representations of the collection of archaeological finds from Egypt to the world.
(Re)claiming the Rosetta: The Rosetta Stone and the (re)writing of Egypt’s Modern History
Photo: © Heba Abd el Gawad
Asah
Musician
Asah is the lead musician and the Technical Manager of Kwan Pa (the right path in the Akan language of Twi), a four-member band that produces music of the Palm Wine genre. Kwan Pa was formed in 2017 to bring to the forefront and expand indigenous music of Ghanaian origin. In their music, Kwan Pa uses instruments like the acoustic guitar, Seprewa (harp-lute), Frikyiwa (castanet), Shekere (big rattle), Gome (square bass drum), Djembe, and Kpanlogo drums. They released their first album in March 2019.
The Akan Drum: An Instrument for Conversation
Photo: © Kwan Pa
Laura Osorio Sunnucks
British Museum
Dr. Laura Osorio Sunnucks is Head of the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research at the British Museum. Previously she was Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for Latin America at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), University of British Columbia. She has also worked on the Indigenous and Minority Fellowship Programme at UNESCO Paris and in Anglophone education at the Louvre Museum. She holds a PhD in Mesoamerican Art and Heritage from the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University.
A Dolphin Tooth Necklace from the Rubber Boom Genocide Collections at the British Museum
Photo: © Laura Osorio Sunnucks
María Mercedes Martínez Milantchí
British Museum
María Mercedes Martínez Milantchí is Project Coordinator for the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research at the British Museum. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and an Erasmus Mundus masters in Archaeological Material Sciences (University of Evora, Sapienza University and Aristotle University) with a focus on pre-Columbian Caribbean archaeology. Previously, she has experience working and researching at the Smithsonian’s Office of International Relations and Museum Conservation Institute, the Yale Art Gallery, and the Peabody Museum of Natural History. Her current research focuses on the archaeology and materialities of European/Indigenous encounter as part of the Corazón del Caribe project based on Mona Island, Puerto Rico.
A Dolphin Tooth Necklace from the Rubber Boom Genocide Collections at the British Museum
Photo: © María Mercedes Martínez Milantchí
Juan Alvaro Echeverri
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Juan Alvaro Echeverri has a PhD in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York. He is currently a full professor at the Amazonia Campus of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He is a specialist in native Amazonian Indigenous populations with work and research experience in social anthropology, ethnohistory, traditional knowledge, linguistic documentation and revitalization, Indigenous education, Indigenous territories, and ethnobotany in the Amazon. He is also the author of Cool Tobacco Sweet Coca (ThemisBooks).
A Dolphin Tooth Necklace from the Rubber Boom Genocide Collections at the British Museum
Photo: © Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research
Oscar Romualdo Román Jitjudtjaaño
Murui-Muina elder
Oscar Romualdo Román Jitjudtjaaño is a Murui-Muina elder from the enokayaɨ (mafafa) clan. He was born in Entrerríos (Cahuinarí River, Colombia) in the 1930s. He completed traditional studies in material and sociocultural disease cure (with master cacique Eugenio Manaɨdɨkɨ).
Publications: “Cocamyth: Management and its Consequences” (Mundo Amazónico 2010), “Witoto Ash Salts from the Amazon” (Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2011) and “Ash Salts and Bodily Affects” (Environmental Research Leers 2013).
A Dolphin Tooth Necklace from the Rubber Boom Genocide Collections at the British Museum
Photo: © Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research
Alicia Sánchez de Romualdo
Murui-Muina elder
Alicia Sánchez de Romualdo is a Murui-Muina elder from the aimenɨ (garza) clan. She was born in La Chorrera (Igaraparaná River, Colombia) in 1937 and is the daughter of the cacique Joyánɨraɨ. She received her primary education in the Indigenous orphanage in La Chorrera, and her later education in the Murui Indigenous culture. She has knowledge in local farming and homerearing, and is mother to eight children and grandmother to fifteen. She speaks the Mɨnɨka and Nɨpode dialects and the Murui-Muina language.
A Dolphin Tooth Necklace from the Rubber Boom Genocide Collections at the British Museum
Photo: © Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research
María Fernanda Esteban Palma
British Museum
María Fernanda Esteban Palma is a Curator in the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research at the British Museum. She combines her background as a registered lawyer in Colombia with her anthropological training to better understand how contemporary communities produce and negotiate their culture. She has worked extensively with urban Indigenous groups from central Colombia. In addition to her ethnographic research, she is interested in the role of objects within ritual practice and how these objects are managed by museums and other institutions such as universities and cultural centres. She holds a law degree from the National University in Colombia, a Master of Arts degree in archaeology from the University of Exeter in the UK, and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in the USA.
A Dolphin Tooth Necklace from the Rubber Boom Genocide Collections at the British Museum
Photo: © Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research
Rachael Minott
Artist
Rachael Minott is a Jamaican-born artist, curator and researcher. Previous curatorial work has included working as Curator of Social Practice Anthropology at the Horniman Museum and Gardens, the exhibitions The Past is Now: Birmingham and the British Empire (2017), Within and Without: Body Image and the Self (2018) with Birmingham Museums Trust. As an artist she has exhibited in the 4th Ghetto Biennale in Port au Prince, Haiti in 2015, and the Jamaica Biennial in 2017. Rachael is a Trustee of the Museums Association where she is the chair of the Decolonising Guidance Working Group.
Photo: © Outroslide Photography, 2018
Sani Yakubu Adam
Bayero University Kano
Sani Yakubu Adam is a lecturer in the Department of History, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. His broader area of interest is the history of Islam in northern Nigeria. He was a fellow of All Africa House Fellowship of the University of Cape Town in 2015 and presently a grantee of Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Doctoral Completion Fellowship. He is currently working on a PhD dissertation focusing on the formation and expansion of the book market of Kano, the major entrepot of northern Nigeria. The thesis examines the book business located in this space but also beyond its boundaries. It looks at all the major players that make up the book market from writers to copyists to printers and also the readers, as consumers, and other intermediaries.
The Benin Plaque and Competing Narratives of the African Art
Photo: © Sani Yakubu Adam
100 Histories of 100 Worlds in One Object 