Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Aesthetics and Politics of Ceramic Production

该奖项是NSF社会，行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在Brandi L.博士的赞助下，麦克唐纳在密苏里州大学，这个博士后奖学金支持早期的职业科学家研究美学和政治的交叉点，在生产陶瓷容器。拟议的研究探讨了新型和高度专业化的多色陶瓷。本研究在关注感官与景观的作用的同时，透过生产的透镜来探讨政治美学。 本项目研究的中心实证问题是：多彩陶瓷生产在社会和空间上是如何组织的？该项目以煤油生产为重点，将提供细粒矿物学和地球化学数据，以查明和区分煤油生产的规模和地点。拟议项目将侧重于油母油生产的三个关键阶段，在此期间采购原材料：1）粘土的选择; 2）回火物的选择（在陶瓷容器成型和烧制之前向粘土中添加非粘土矿物/有机物质）; 3）颜料材料的选择。该项目将采用岩相学研究粘土和回火的选择，激光烧蚀电感耦合等离子体质谱和中子活化分析研究粘土的选择，便携式X射线荧光和拉曼光谱研究颜料材料的选择。更广泛地说，这个项目将扩大以前的奖学金调查工艺生产在早期国家的社会和政治关系中的作用。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This award was provided as part of the NSF Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Brandi L. MacDonald at the University of Missouri, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist examining the intersection of aesthetics and politics in the production of ceramic vessels. The proposed research examines novel and highly specialized polychrome ceramics. While engaging with research concerned with the roles of sense and spectacle, this project investigates political aesthetics through the lens of production. The central empirical question this project investigates is: how was polychrome ceramic production organized socially and spatially? Focusing on the production of the kero, the project will produce fine-grained mineralogical and geochemical data in order to identify and distinguish the scales and sites of kero production. The proposed project will focus on three key stages in the manufacture of keros during which raw materials were procured: 1) the selection of clays; 2) the selection of tempers (non-clay mineral/organic substances added to clays prior to forming and firing ceramic vessels); and 3) the selection of pigmentaceous materials. The project will employ petrography to investigate the selections of clays and tempers, Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and Neutron Activation Analysis to investigate the selection of clays, and portable X-ray fluorescence and Raman Spectroscopy to investigate the selection of pigmentaceous materials. More broadly, this project will expand upon previous scholarship investigating the role of craft production in the social and political relations of early states.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.