The Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History

MUSEUM RESEARCH TRAINING USING SMITHSONIAN COLLECTIONS

The Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA) is a research training program offered by the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History with major funding from the Cultural Anthropology Program of the National Science Foundation. The program seeks to promote broader and more effective use of museum collections in anthropological research by providing a supplement to university training. Each summer SIMA supports 10-12 graduate students who want to use collections in their research. Using Smithsonian collections, experts, and visiting faculty, SIMA:

• introduces students to the scope of collections and their potential as data
• provides training in appropriate methods to collect and analyze museum data
• makes participants aware of a range of theoretical issues relating to collections
• positions students to apply their knowledge within their home university

The curriculum, including both seminars and hands-on workshops, teaches students how to navigate museum systems, select methods to examine and analyze museum specimens, and recognize the wealth of theoretical issues that museum data can address.

Resident Smithsonian faculty include Dr. Candace Greene and Dr. Joshua Bell

Visiting faculty for 2016 include Dr. Ira Jacknis (Berkeley) and Dr. David Odo (Harvard)

For more information on SIMA click here. 

Deadline: 1 March 2016

SIMA 2016 dates: June 27, 2016 – July 22, 2016