Event Details

End: February 15, 2016
Contact: sima@si.edu
More Info: http://anthropology.si.edu/summerinstitute/index.htm

Dear Colleagues,

We are now accepting proposals from prospective graduate student participants for the 2016 Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA). We hope you will forward this announcement to interested students and re-post to relevant lists. SIMA is a graduate student summer training program in museum research methods offered through the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History with major funding from the Cultural Anthropology Program of the National Science Foundation. Summer 2016 dates are June 27-July 22.

During four weeks of intensive training in seminars and hands-on workshops at the museum and an off-site collections facility, students are introduced to the scope of collections and their potential as data. Students become acquainted with strategies for navigating museum systems, learn to select methods to examine and analyze museum specimens, and consider a range of theoretical issues that collections-based research may address. In consultation with faculty, each student carries out preliminary data collection on a topic of their own choice and develops a prospectus for research to be implemented upon return to their home university. Visiting faculty members for 2016 will be Dr. Ira Jacknis (UC Berkeley), Dr. David Oto (Harvard) and Dr. Marit Munson (Trent Univ.). Local faculty will include Dr. Joshua A. Bell and Dr. Candace Greene of the Smithsonian Anthropology Department.

Who should apply? Graduate students preparing for research careers in cultural anthropology who are interested in using museum collections as a data source. The program is not designed to serve students seeking careers in museum management. Students at both the masters and doctoral level will be considered for acceptance. Students in related interdisciplinary programs (Indigenous Studies, Folklore, etc.) are welcome to apply if the proposed project is anthropological in nature. All U.S. students are eligible for acceptance, even if studying abroad. International students can be considered only if they are enrolled in a university in the U.S. Canadian First Nation members are eligible under treaty agreements.

Costs:

The program covers students’ tuition and shared housing in local furnished apartments. A small stipend will be provided to assist with the cost of food and other local expenses. Participants are individually responsible for the cost of travel to and from Washington, DC.

Application deadline - March 1, 2016 SIMA dates for 2016: June 27- July 22