Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Aesthetics and Politics of Ceramic Production

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。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职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项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。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在密苏里大学Brandi L.MacDonald博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一位早期职业科学家研究陶瓷器皿生产中美学和政治的交集。这项拟议的研究考察了新的、高度专业化的多彩陶瓷。在从事与感觉和场景的作用相关的研究的同时，这个项目通过生产的镜头来调查政治美学。这个项目调查的中心实证问题是：彩色陶瓷生产是如何在社会和空间上组织起来的？该项目将以煤岩生产为重点，提供细粒度的矿物学和地球化学数据，以识别和区分煤岩生产的规模和地点。拟议的项目将侧重于生产Keros的三个关键阶段，在这三个阶段采购原材料：1)选择粘土；2)选择陶土(在形成和烧制陶瓷容器之前添加到粘土中的非粘土矿物/有机物质)；以及3)选择颜料材料。该项目将使用岩相学来研究粘土和钢质的选择，使用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，以及使用便携式X射线荧光和拉曼光谱来研究颜料材料的选择。更广泛地说，这个项目将在以前研究手工艺生产在早期国家社会和政治关系中的作用的奖学金的基础上进行扩展。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.