Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology

博物馆收藏的人类学资料是美国的一笔财富。它们通过展览和项目吸引并激励了数百万美国人，成为向广大观众传播知识的重要教育资源。博物馆保存的物品也构成了对过去和现在的文化实践的宝贵科学记录。它们是一个物理材料的数据库，可以随着问题和方法的变化而一次又一次地检查、分析和重新评估。物品记录了文化行为的动态方面，这些方面没有记录在书面资料中；它们是少数几种直接从没有文字的过去社会获取信息的方法之一。然而，这些集合并没有充分发挥其潜力。许多感兴趣的研究人员无法有效地利用博物馆的藏品，因为他们缺乏接近或评估这类数据的技能和方法，这带来了明显的挑战。在美国，以博物馆为基础的研究很少有研究生水平的课程。少数确实存在的学校很少能提供对对象研究至关重要的动手学习。希望挖掘美国博物馆研究潜力的学生要么必须出国留学，要么必须自学成才。结果是，我们没有充分利用国家在博物馆藏品的组装和维护方面所做的投资。博物馆人类学暑期学院（SIMA）就是为了满足这一需求而成立的。在史密森学会的人类学系，这是一个为期四周的密集住宿项目，提供博物馆研究方法的培训。它每年招收12名来自全国各地的研究生，他们有望通过实物研究为文化人类学领域的发展做出贡献。SIMA是一个严格的项目，包括正式的课堂时间，个人研究工作和广泛的指导。美国国家科学基金会的支持包括学生参加费用，并将专门的访问专家与史密森尼学者聚集在一起，他们的时间贡献给了SIMA。史密森尼博物馆将其广泛的藏品作为学习的实验室，让学生有机会深入研究世界上最伟大的人类学研究藏品之一。在2009年至2013年期间，SIMA为来自41所大学和22个州的60名学生提供了培训。现在，它为研究生提供了一个坚实的培训模式，以前的参与者开始获得大学职位，在那里他们将SIMA作为自己教学的模式。目前赠款下的工作将探索更广泛地传播基于收集的研究培训的其他方法。在继续为研究生提供培训的同时，SIMA将增加一个模块，供教师开发博物馆研究课程，并将举办一个研讨会，将有兴趣合作建立类似SIMA的研究所的大学聚集在一起。所有这些活动的目标是培养新一代的美国学者，他们能够在他们的研究中有效地利用人类学收藏。这些新学者将使博物馆重新焕发活力，成为知识产生和传播的场所。

Museum collections of anthropological material are an American treasure. They engage and inspire millions of Americans through exhibits and programs, serving as an important educational resource for communicating knowledge to a wide audience. The objects that museums preserve also constitute an invaluable scientific record of cultural practices, past and present. They are a databank of physical material that can be examined, analyzed, and reassessed again and again as questions and methods change over time. Objects document dynamic aspects of cultural behavior that are not recorded in written sources; they are one of the few ways to gain information directly from past societies that did not have writing. However, these collections are not being used to their full potential. Many interested researchers cannot effectively utilize museum collections because they lack the skills and methods to approach or evaluate this type of data, which presents distinct challenges. There are few graduate-level courses in museum-based research in the United States. The few that do exist seldom can offer the hands-on learning that is essential for object study. Students wishing to tap into the research potential of American museums either have had to study abroad or to train themselves. The result is that we are not fully capitalizing on the investment the nation has made in the assembly and maintenance of museum collections.The Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA) was created in response to this need. Based in the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Anthropology, it is an intensive four-week residential program providing training in museum research methods. Each year it accepts 12 graduate students from across the country who show promise to contribute to development of the field of cultural anthropology through object research. SIMA is a rigorous program that includes a mix of formal class time, individual research work, and extensive mentoring. Support from the National Science Foundation covers student participant costs and the bringing together of a specialized faculty of visiting experts with Smithsonian scholars whose time is contributed to SIMA. The Smithsonian offers its extensive collections as a laboratory for learning, giving students an opportunity for in-depth work with one of the greatest anthropological research collections in the world. Over the period of 2009 to 2013, SIMA has provided training for 60 students from 41 universities and 22 states. It now has a solid training model for graduate students in place, and former participants are beginning to gain university positions where they are using SIMA as a model for their own teaching. Work under the current grant will explore additional methods to disseminate training in collection-based research more widely. While continuing to provide training for graduate students, SIMA will add a module for faculty developing courses in museum research and also will hold a workshop to bring together universities interested in collaborating on institutes similar to SIMA. The goal of all these activities is to create a new generation of American scholars who are able to use anthropological collections effectively in their research. These new scholars will revitalize museums as sites where knowledge is produced as well as disseminated.