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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology

Overview

The Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA) at the Smithsonian seeks to promote broader and more effective use of museum collections – artifacts, audio recordings, art works, still and moving images - in anthropological research by providing graduate students with an immersive, four-week training program and research experience at the Smithsonian Institution. In support of each summer’s program, Collections and Archives Internships are offered to current students or recent graduates from archives, library science, museum studies, or anthropology programs. Faculty Fellowships are awarded each year to teaching faculty who are interested in learning how to incorporate museum collections into their teaching.

The program is offered by the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, with major funding from the Cultural Anthropology Program and the Documenting Endangered Language Program of the National Science Foundation.

 

Working intensively each summer with 12-14 Research Interns, the institute:

  • introduces students to the scope and potential of museum collections
  • provides training in appropriate methods to collect and analyze museum materials
  • makes participants aware of a range of theoretical issues relating to museum collections
  • positions students to apply their knowledge within their own research and at their home university
  • advances pedagogical training and methods that helps reposition museum collections as critical resources in cultural anthropology

 

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SIMA students and faculty examining molas, colorful shirt panels from Kuna people in Panama

Curriculum

Topics of both seminars and hands-on workshops include the critical analysis of documentation, the development of observational skills, the definition of appropriate data sets, ecological understandings of materials and their origins and relationship to source communities, the potential of Ancient DNA research, conservation analysis, reconstruction of the "social life" of objects and the critical analysis of still and moving images.

Unique Smithsonian resources such as the annual Folklife Festival, the National Anthropological Archives, the Human Studies Film Archives, rotating exhibits, and other museum collections complement lessons in which students explore the integration of museum-based data with other types of information, such as fieldwork and the critical analysis of the documentary record.

Research Internship

The SIMA Research Internship forms the core of summer program. Prospective SIMA Research Interns propose individual research projects that they will work on during their time in the program. Applicants are encouraged to contact the program (sima@si.edu) to help develop their project proposal. During SIMA, Research Interns continually rework their project proposals as they collect information, become familiar with the nature of museum collections, and refine their search questions. 

Research Interns may develop projects on any topic for which there are relevant artifacts in the Smithsonian collections. The primary resource is the ethnology artifact collection in the Department of Anthropology and the still and moving image collections in the National Anthropological Archives and the Human Studies Film Archives.

The program culminates in a symposium at which Research Interns present their research findings and a refined project proposal suitable for implementation upon return to their home universities.

Research Intern Application Information

SIMA 2024 Dates: June 23-July 18, 2025

Research Internship Application Deadline: March 1, 2025

Research Internship applicants must submit a short statement of interest and an initial proposal for an individual research project. A letter of commitment is required from a faculty member who will supervise further development and implementation of the project in the year after the student's participation in SIMA. Students will be notified of acceptance within 4 weeks after the application deadline

Full application instructions

Information / FAQs for Research Interns

Costs and Commitments

The program covers Research Interns’ room, board, and tuition. Housing is provided and a small stipend will be provided for food and other local expenses. Participants are individually responsible for the cost of travel to and from Washington, DC. The SIMA Research Internship is an intensive residential program and the participants are expected to devote full time to the training. Preparatory readings are assigned to ensure that students arrive with comparable background knowledge.

Collections and Archives Internships provide a stipend. The internships run for eight weeks, which include two weeks of training prior to the start of the program.

Collections and Archives Internship

Collections and Archives Interns provide critical support to the Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology. Working with museum staff, interns gain real world experience in working with researchers, navigating collections records and databases, and a variety of collections stewardship or archival practices. Archival Interns are based in the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) and Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) to support its reference and outreach program during the SIMA program.

Application Deadline: March 1, 2025. Collections and Archives Internship applicants must submit a cover letter/statement of interest, CV or resume, letter of support. Acceptances are made on a rolling basis. 

More information and complete application instructions: SIMA Collections and Archives Internships 

 

Faculty Fellowship

The Faculty Fellowship is an opportunity for established teaching faculty to develop courses on collections-based research methods.We accept 2-3 faculty each year who are positioned to offer courses on museum research methods, and who would like to use SIMA as an opportunity to observe, learn, and share lesson planning.

Faculty

SIMA Students and Faculty

Instruction is enriched by lectures and collection workshops led by scholars from throughout the Smithsonian as well as by visiting speakers. Faculty at students' home institutions are important partners who will guide SIMA participants in the implementation of what they have learned during the Institute. Such faculty need not have experience in museum-based research, but they must be committed to helping students continue the project they will have begun during SIMA and turn their research prospectus into a publishable paper.

Joshua A. Bell, SIMA Director and Chair of the NMNH Department of Anthropology

Eric Hollinger, Tribal Liaison, Repatriation Office, NMNH

Gwyn Isaac, Curator of North American Ethnology, NMNH

Logan Kistler, Curator of Archaeobotany and Archaeogenomics, NMNH

Dorothy Lippert, Repatriation Program Manager, NMNH

Torben Rick, Curator of North American Archaeology, NMNH

 

  • Candace S. Greene; Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian NMNH, and Director Emeritus, SIMA
  • Naomi Recollet, Lead Care-Taker for Art and Ancestral Heritage, Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, M'Chigeeng, Ontario, Canada.
  • Gaye Sculthorpe, Research Professor, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

Candace S. Greene; Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian NMNH, and Director Emeritus, SIMA

Jilda Andrews, Research Fellow, National Museum of Australia and the Australian National University. Co-Chair, Advisory Council of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, Charlottesville 

Alison Brown, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

Joe Horse Capture, Ahmanson Curator of Native American History and Culture, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles

Ira Jacknis, Senior Research Anthropologist, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

Jason Baird Jackson, Ruth N. Halls Professor of Folklore and Anthropology, Indiana University

Michael Jordan, Assistant Professor, Ethnology, Texas Tech University

Rosemary Joyce, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

Jennifer Kramer, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of British Columbia; Northwest Curator, Museum of Anthropology (MOA), UBC

Cara Krmpotich, Associate Professor and Director of Museum Studies Program, University of Toronto

Howard Morphy, Distinguished Professor, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University

Marit Munson, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Trent University

Fred Myers, Silver Professor, Department of Anthropology, Department of Art History, Department of Religious Studies, New York University

Maia Nuku, Curator, Oceania, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

David Odo, Director, Georgia Museum of Art

Nancy Parezo, Professor Emeritus, University of Arizona

Naomi Recollet, Lead Care Taker for Art and Ancestral Heritage, Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF)

Gaye Sculthorpe, Research Professor, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin University Melbourne

Robert Welsch, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Franklin Pierce University

Candace Greene, Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution; and Director Emeritus, SIMA

Gwyneira Isaac, Curator, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Ann McMullen, Curator and Head of Collections Research and Documentation, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution

Jennifer Shannon, Outreach & Engagement Planning Manager, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution

Logan Kistler, Curator, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Torben Rick, Curator, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Adrian Van Allen, Associate Researcher, Anthropology, California Academy of Sciences, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution, Abe Fellow of the Social Science Research Council

David Odo, Director, Georgia Museum of Art

Kate Hennessy, Associate Professor, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University

Alison K. Brown, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

Cynthia Chavez Lamar, Assistant Director for the Collections, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution

Amalia Cordova, Curator of Digital & Emerging Media, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution

SIMA Poster and Logo

 

 

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers BCS-1127060, BCS-0852511, BCS-1424029, BCS-1824641 and BCS-2317314.