Gwyneira Isaac
Associate Professor
Director, ASU Museum of Anthropology
Ph.D., Sociocultural/Museum Anthropology, Oxford University
SHESC Themes: Culture, Heritage and Identity
Field Specializations: Ethnography, Material Culture, Museology, Visual Anthropology
Regional Focus: North America (Southwest)
Contact: Gwyneira Isaac, SHESC 258
Research:
Gwyneira Isaac is assistant professor and director of the Museum of Anthropology at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University (D.Phil. Oxford University 2002). Her research focuses on the relationships people develop with their past through material culture, leading her to explore the history of anthropology and photography, as well as the development of tribal museums in the Southwest. Bridging these different topics has resulted in her interest in constructing theories that integrate anthropology, art and history to form interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to the study of society. Through identifying vernacular approaches to the control of knowledge, her aim is to provide frameworks for understanding how culturally distinct knowledge systems interact with each other.
Isaac has conducted fieldwork at the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni, New Mexico, and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. This research explores how particular communities determine what is public and private knowledge and how this is negotiated through national and local museums. She raises questions about how we define the relationship between "knowledge" and "information" and argues that we need a cross-cultural definition for "sensitive" knowledge in order to help resolve conflicts over access. Her recent work looks at the history of reproductive technologies in museums, such as photography and digital media, exploring how these provide insight into cultural distinct ways of embodying and circulating knowledge.
Teaching:
Dr. Isaac teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in sociocultural and museum anthropology.
Select Publications:
Isaac, G. (in press). Digital enhancements: The use of electronic media at the National Museum of the American Indian. In H. Lidchi & H. J. Tsinhnahjinnie (Eds.), Visual currencies: Reflections on Native American photography. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland Press.
Isaac, G. (in press). Responsibility towards knowledge: The Zuni Museum as a mediator between Anglo-American and Zuni knowledge systems. In S. Sleeper-Smith (Ed.), Contesting knowledge: Museums and indigenous perspectives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Isaac, G. (in press). Whose idea was this anyway? Museums, replicas and the reproduction of knowledge. Current Anthropology.
Isaac, G. (2008). Technology becomes the object: Art, artifact and digital media at the National Museum of the American Indian. Journal of Material Culture, 13(3), 287-310.
Isaac, G. (2007). Mediating knowledges: Origins of a Zuni tribal museum. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Isaac, G. (2006). What are our expectations telling us? Encounters with the National Museum of the American Indian. American Indian Quarterly, 30(4), 574-596.
Isaac, G. (2005). Mediating knowledges: Zuni negotiations for a culturally relevant museum. Museum Anthropology, 28(1), 3-18.
Isaac, G. (2005). Re-observation and the recognition of change: The photographs of Matilda Coxe Stevenson (1879-1915). Journal of the Southwest, 47(3), 411-455.
Isaac, G., Hobart, J., Mitchell, P., Coote, J. & De Alarcon, M. (2000). Early rock art collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. South African Field Archaeology, 9, 43-54.
Isaac, G., Fontenelle, W. & Kennedy, T. (1997). A:shiwi A:wan: ‘Belonging to the Zuni people': Interviews from the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni, NM. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 21(1), 41-46.
Isaac, G. (1997). Louis Agassiz's photographs of Brazil: Separate creations. History of Photography, 21(1), 3-11.
