The Seminar in Museum Conversations with Ann-Sophie Lehmann
BGC Scholar-in-Residence; University of Groningen

Tuesday, November 2, 5 pm on Zoom

Ann-Sophie Lehmann will deliver a talk entitled “Object Biography: The Life of a Concept.”

The object biography has gained popularity in art history, material culture studies, archaeology, history, conservation and restoration, and museum studies. As a concept, the biography creates attention for the individual trajectories of objects and how these change over time. It enables the connection of different approaches usually dealt with by sub-disciplines and stimulates new forms of writing because it lends the object a voice and foregrounds narrative. But the concept’s anthropocentric foundations also raise questions. This talk presents a brief history and theory of the concept of the object-biography, from its literary and didactic origins in the eighteenth-century to its recent critics, asking what the concept can help us see, which we otherwise would not.

Writing the Hamat’sa: Book Launch with Aaron Glass 
Associate Professor, Bard Graduate Center

Thursday, November 4, 6 pm on Zoom

Bard Graduate Center, Documentary Education Resources (DER), and UBC Press will host author Aaron Glass, Kwakwaka’wakw descendant Andy Everson, and moderator Philip Deloria for an engaging discussion about Writing the Hamat’sa. Over ten years in the making, this comprehensive publication covers two centuries of writing about the Hamat’sa, famously known as the Cannibal Dance. The dance is among the most important hereditary prerogatives of the Kwakwaka’wakw of British Columbia. Please join us as Aaron reads from his book and shares a short clip of the film, followed by a discussion about Writing the Hamat’sa.

The Seminar in Art and Material Culture of Africa and the African Diaspora with Monica L. Miller
Barnard College, Columbia University

Tuesday, November 9, 12:15–1:15 pm on Zoom

Monica L. Miller will present a talk entitled “Rhizomatic Forms and Global Black Aesthetics.”

Miller will examine recently published memoirs and fictional accounts of growing up Black and Swedish and argue that the ways in which they experience and navigate Sweden’s racial regime and often, at least rhetorically, describe their way to Swedishness and Blackness, happens by way of an exploration of a sense of diasporic Blackness that is best figured as rhizomatic. This rhizomatic thinking reconfigures the way in which we think about the space/time of Blackness, and opens up theorization and recognition of Black identities in a globally inclusive frame. These identities are related to, but not limited by, experiences of anti-Blackness, and rather serve in the creation of an affiliative Black consciousness. In particular, Miller is interested in theorizing the narration of self and becoming in these memoirs as a kind of spatial and grammatical journey through tense and (Black) time that creates, in the end, a sense of place and belonging.

The Alumni Spotlight Lecture with Sequoia Miller
Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, BGC MA ’12

Tuesday, November 16, 6–7:30 pm on Zoom

Sequoia Miller will deliver a talk entitled “Blackface Harlequins and Other Challenges of New Museology.”

How does a small museum specializing in historical European ceramics face the challenges of contemporary socially-engaged museology? The Gardiner Museum in Toronto opened in 1984 featuring historical European ceramics collected by its founders, George and Helen Gardiner. Since then, Toronto has become one of the most diverse, dynamic, and cosmopolitan cities in the world. How do small museums anchored in elite European culture transform to engage more diverse audiences? How do colonial institutions build inclusive practices while staying true to their specific collections? This talk will consider the Gardiner Museum as a case study for these and other questions and challenges of contemporary museology.

Brown Bag Lunch with Brooke Penaloza-Patzak
University of Pennsylvania, BGC MA ’11

Wednesday, November 17, 12:15–1:15 pm on Zoom

Brooke Penaloza-Patzak will give a presentation entitled “Objects as Data: Ancient Migration and Beringian Collections in and between the Natural and Human Sciences.”

At its narrowest point, the Bering Strait separates Asia and North America by just eighty-five kilometers. The name for this region, joined by the mammoth steppe up until the end of the Last Glacial Maxim, is Beringia. During the mid-nineteenth century, the proximity of these continents and new archeological findings galvanized new scientific speculation that humankind had populated the “New World” via the Bering Strait. Proponents of the Beringia migration theory hypothesized that comparative analysis of objects collected from either side of the Strait would help elucidate the relationship between the old and new worlds, and the course of human diffusion and nature of human affinity more generally. Situated at the intersections of scientific practice, material culture studies, economics, and geopolitics, this talk uses the history of scientific collection in Beringia as a lens through which to explore the problem of objects as scientific data in theory and practice.

All events will be held via Zoom. A link will be circulated to registrants on the day of the event. All events will be live with automatic captions.