MEDIA CENTER
EXPLORING HUMANITY. UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD. Since 1907.
The School for Advanced Research is one of North America’s preeminent independent institutes for the study of anthropology, related social sciences, and humanities. SAR is home to the Indian Arts Research Center, one of the nation’s most important Southwest Native American art research collections. Through scholar residencies, artist fellowships, SAR Press, and public programs, SAR advances our understanding of humankind in an increasingly interconnected world.
SAR NEWS
Staying Connected
In addition to canceling, postponing, or livestreaming our in-person public programs until April 30, we have reluctantly decided to close the SAR campus to the public until further notice.
We understand that your mailboxes are flooded with messages about responses to Covid-19 and it can seem overwhelming. But now is a good time to reflect and find new ways to engage with one another. So we can’t engage in-person? Let’s connect from home. Here are several ways you can continue to be part of the SAR community from afar.
2020 J.I. Staley Prize Awarded to a Powerful Examination of Life, Death, and Care, among Inuit Communities.
Lisa Stevenson’s Life Beside Itself examines two historical moments among the Inuit of northern Canada: a tuberculosis epidemic in the mid-twentieth century and an epidemic of suicides among Inuit youth today. Through richly textured analysis, Stevenson shows how suicide prevention programs disregard what makes life worthwhile to Inuit people. Life Beside Itself deftly weaves together ethnography, archival voice recordings, and images to raise new questions about life, death, and care.
IARC Speaker Series Explores Indigenous-Based Cultural Preservation
SAR is proud to present a series of conversation-style presentations exploring today’s world of cultural preservation. This year’s IARC speaker series takes us on a journey beyond the Pueblo communities within which we are situated, to shed light on the many remarkable ways indigenous-based cultural preservation is happening nationally.
Chaco Landscapes: Sensory and Political Engagements with Place
The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is pleased to announce the next event in our third annual Creative Thought Forum Series. Archaeologist Ruth Van Dyke presents Chaco Landscapes: Sensory and Political Engagements with Place. In her talk she shares insights into past and present social, political, and sensorial relationships across the greater Chaco landscape. She explores how archaeologists can work together with Native peoples to influence the public understanding of contemporary economic/extractive projects, including those in northwest New Mexico.
Guidelines for Collaboration: IARC Leads National Trend in Collaborative Museum Work
The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is pleased to announce the publication of the Guidelines for Collaboration, theoretical and practical guides to building successful collaborations between Indigenous communities, museums, and other collecting institutions. The Guidelines are the product of several years of critical discourse between over sixty Native and non-Native museum professionals, cultural leaders, artists, and scholars experienced in collaborative work in various institutions in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Available only in limited release until now, the Guidelines are already being used by internationally recognized institutions including Chicago’s Field Museum and University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) in collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute.
SCHOLARS AND ARTISTS IN THE NEWS
Touring “Down Under” to Talk Hobbits, Einstein, and the Evolution of Language
At the heart of her research, SAR senior scholar Dean Falk asks, “What can fossils, babies, and Einstein tell us about the way our brains have evolved?” Falk addressed this question and more during a tour of lectures and interviews across western Australia this summer, where, on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio program “Late Night Live”, she touches upon evolution and language, the uniqueness of Einstein’s brain, and “hobbits”, or the newly discovered (and short) human species, Homo floresiensis.
Sharing Knowledge and Collaborative Curation: Native Women Artists Featured in New MIA Exhibit
“It may ruffle feathers, but diversity means there’s a different way of doing things. If you want buy-in from the Native communities, you have to listen to them.” —Teri Greeves, SAR’s 2003 Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native artist fellow, quoted in a recent New York Times article exploring the current Minneapolis Institute of Art exhibit, Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists.
Unlocking Clues to Life in the Middle San Juan Pueblos
Ruined great houses, corn kernels and bones—these are just some of the archeological fragments that have offered researchers new insights into how Middle San Juan Puebloan peoples lived in the 12th and 13th centuries. Featured earlier this year in the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Pasatiempo, the book Aztec, Salmon, and the Puebloan Heartland of the Middle San Juan covers these topics and more as eleven contributing writers examine new evidence that helps shed light on the settlements.
Bringing Native American Voices into Exhibition Development
2016-2017 Anne Ray intern, Nina Sanders, shares her reflections on an ongoing collaboration with the Field Museum in Chicago.
MEDIA CONTACTS
ALL PRESS INQUIRIES
Mary G. Madigan
Director of Public Programs and Communications
505.954.7223
madigan@sarsf.org
SUBJECT INQUIRIES
Michael F. Brown
President, School for Advanced Research
505.954.7211
mfbrown@sarsf.org
Subjects: Anthropology and popular culture, indigenous peoples of Amazonia, new religious movements, protecting indigenous cultural property from misuse
Elysia Poon
Acting Director, Indian Arts Research Center
505.954.7279
poon@sarsf.org
Subjects: Museum education, Museums and Native Source community collaboration, Southwestern Native American Art, Museum Practices with Native American Communities
Paul Ryer
Director, SAR Scholar Programs
505.954.7240
ryer@sarsf.org
Subjects: Cuban diaspora, cultural anthropology
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