Christopher Martin, a second year PhD student in Anthropology and Archaeology, has won a place on the Ostego Institute Summer Seminar in May 2017 entitled "Beyond Hyridity: Modelling Intercultural Histories and Material Worlds in Native North America".
He will join 12 other international PhD students and some of the leading scholars in museum anthropology for four days at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown (New York State) engaging in lectures, seminars, exercises in making, and learning skills and techniques used in the study of Indigenous North American visual and material culture. The culmination of this workshop will involve the informal presentation of Christopher’s PhD project, and a short research essay from the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art which will be developed during his time at the workshop.
Christopher’s research focusses on a collection of Northwest Coast American, Indigenous-made objects which were collected by Perthshire-born fur trader Colin Robertson and donated to the Perth Museum and Art Gallery in 1833. Through looking at the active role of objects in social interaction, Christopher intends to demonstrate how objects continue to be active and shifting in meaning throughout their museum lives, rather than becoming static once institutionalised.
The workshop is a wonderful opportunity for Chris to extend awareness of this collection, and to develop his understanding of theoretical and methodological engagement with North American museum collections. Congratulations, Chris!