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.
For more information on SIMA visit: http://anthropology.si.edu/summerinstitute
Deadline: 1 March 2015
