Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Aesthetics and Politics of Ceramic Production

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）项目的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界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奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在密苏里大学布兰迪·l·麦克唐纳博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金奖支持一位早期职业科学家在陶瓷容器生产中研究美学和政治的交集。提出的研究检查新颖和高度专业化的多色陶瓷。在参与有关感官和景观角色的研究的同时，该项目通过生产的镜头来研究政治美学。本项目研究的中心实证问题是：多色陶瓷生产是如何在社会和空间上组织起来的？该项目侧重于天然气的生产，将提供细粒度的矿物学和地球化学数据，以确定和区分天然气生产的规模和地点。拟议的项目将集中在生产keros的三个关键阶段，在这些阶段采购原材料：1)粘土的选择；2)回火剂的选择（非粘土矿物/在陶瓷容器成型和烧制前添加到粘土中的有机物质）；3)色素材料的选择。该项目将采用岩石学来研究粘土和脾气的选择，激光烧蚀电感耦合等离子体质谱和中子活化分析来研究粘土的选择，便携式x射线荧光和拉曼光谱来研究色素材料的选择。更广泛地说，这个项目将扩展先前的学术研究，研究早期国家的社会和政治关系中工艺生产的作用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.