Why We Left: A Literary Archaeology of American Colonization

Dr. Brooks will complete her fifth book and second monograph, Why We Left: A Literary Archeology of Anglo-American Colonization, a critical reexamination of the causes and cultures of American colonization. To reconstruct the world-views of poor Anglo-American colonists, she utilizes a potent ethnographic cache of memory: archives of folksongs that originated in seventeenth-century England, crossed the ocean, and have been sung continuously into the present. These ballads narrate the mass migration of poor English to America as a consequence of environmental destruction, economic disruption, and social betrayals in England. Why We Left builds out from these anthropological source texts and related historiography new narratives that challenge traditional American exceptionalist views of colonization and instead positions early colonists as members of communities fragmented by processes of economic mercantalization and globalization that continue to reshape the world today.

Affiliation at time of award:
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of English and Comparative Literature
San Diego State University

Sponsored by Ethel-Jane Westfeldt Bunting Foundation

Frances Densmore and the History of Anthropology

While at SAR, Dr. Jensen will prepare an article on the work of ethnologist Frances Densmore (1867–1957) and her place in the history of anthropology. A longer coauthored work, already in progress, will examine the work of Frances Densmore in Native American studies. That work includes an evaluation and a conversation among scholars, Native and non-Native, about her half-century recording, collecting, photographing, and writing about Native culture. The article places Densmore’s work in its broader context of the intellectual life of the early twentieth century and offers interdisciplinary ways of looking at the history of anthropology. Dr. Jensen suggests that three aspects are important for creating this context. First, because the Bureau of American Ethnology provided funds to support Densmore’s field work, writing, and publication from 1904 until the 1950s, her life’s work is part of an applied rather than academic anthropology. Second, Densmore’s work is part of the history of women anthropologists. And, finally, her work is part of the efforts by non-Natives to collect, record, and explain Indigenous expressive culture, an area little explored in the history of anthropology.

Affiliation at time of award:
Professor Emerita
Department of History
New Mexico State University

Negotiating Linguistic and Cultural Identities Online in Balinese

The Internet can aid in empowering and maintaining traditional identities through the manipulation and re-imagining of language and culture. This is in contrast to many studies that focus on the adverse effects of the Internet—and globalization in general—on traditional cultures. Dr. Luna’s project examines this issue through an analysis of Internet forums and social networking sites where the primary language is Balinese, as informed by an approach incorporating linguistics and the ethnography of speaking. He proposes that the use of two types of written expression in Balinese—expressions that were formerly restricted to ritual use, and the renegotiation of orthographic practices—serve to reimagine a representation of Balinese culture that responds to anti-Balinese forces, influences of encroaching modernity and globalization, and a renewed sense of cultural self-awareness.

Affiliation at time of award:
Instructor
Department of English Education
Mokpo National University

Painting the Pueblo: Art and the Politics of Preservation, 1915–1930

Painting the Pueblo explores representations of Pueblo Indians produced in New Mexico during the late 1910s and 1920s, a period that witnessed an epochal shift in federal Indian policy from assimilation to preservation. During this period, artists with diverse aesthetic tendencies became a central force in the fight against assimilationist policies. As Dr. Scott’s research demonstrates, the art produced by these artist-activists was often informed by their political perspectives. Moreover, their political battle led to a widespread change in attitude towards American Indians and radically transformed the visual culture of the Southwest. While at SAR, Dr. Scott will focus on San Ildefonso artist Awa Tsireh (Alfonso Roybal), whose paintings offer a complex commentary on cross-cultural contact in the region. By considering Tsireh’s works within the tumultuous political context of the 1920s, Dr. Scott aims to highlight the Pueblo role in the debates of the period.

Affiliation at time of award:
Assistant Professor
Department of Art and Music Histories
Syracuse University

Sponsored by Ethel-Jane Westfeldt Bunting Foundation

Late Antique and Byzantine Monuments and the Topography of Southern Caria in the Light of New Archaeological Evidence

Dr. Serin’s summer research at SAR is part of a larger, long-term project that aims to offer a critical analysis of the Late Antique and Byzantine monuments and topography of Southern Caria (5th–13th centuries AD), in what is now western Turkey. Her work investigates the types of buildings, sites, and settlements identified in this region; their distribution across the landscape; and their association with the major ancient cities in the area, especially Iasos and Bargylia. This research intends to offer recent archaeological data for a better understanding of the urban territoria and countryside of ancient Caria. The identification and interpretation of the monuments and settlements in this vast region of Western Asia Minor will fill a considerable gap in our knowledge of Late Antique and Byzantine layers of Anatolian history, culture, and archaeology.

Affiliation at time of award:
Guest Scholar
Department of Architecture
Middle East University

Sponsored by UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

An Ethnography of “Our Lives”: Collaboration, Native Voice, and the Making of the National Museum of the American Indian

During her tenure at SAR, Dr. Shannon will seek feedback on, and complete final revisions of, a book manuscript titled An Ethnography of “Our Lives”: Collaboration, Native Voice, and the Making of the National Museum of the American Indian. This account is based on two years of multi-sited dissertation fieldwork from 2004 to 2006 and employment with the National Museum of the American Indian from 1999 to 2002. The bulk of editing has been completed and a draft circulated among key participants in Dr. Shannon’s research. During the fellowship, Dr. Shannon will incorporate changes based on their feedback as well as add new literature and write a final section on decolonizing the museum.

Affiliation at time of award:
Assistant Professor and Curator
Department of Anthropology and Museum of Natural History
University of Colorado, Boulder

Sponsored by Ethel-Jane Westfeldt Bunting Foundation