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Isaac, Gwyn (Gwyneira)

Isaac, Gwyn (Gwyneira)

Curator of North American Indigenous Culture

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Isaac, Gwyn (Gwyneira)

Curator of North American Indigenous Culture

Anthropology, Zuni and Southwest Pueblos, knowledge systems, material culture, photography.

Positions

Background And Education

Education And Training

Professional Biography

  • My research looks at intersections between different knowledge systems (either culturally or disciplinarily distinct) with the goal of developing interdisciplinary theories and methods that provide insight into the cross-cultural dynamics of knowledge. In particular, I study areas where Native American and non-Native knowledges intersect. Central to this is my fieldwork and ethnography of a tribal museum in the Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico, where I look at challenges faced by Zunis operating between Zuni and Euro-American approaches to the transmission and use of knowledge. Through the book Mediating Knowledges: Origins of a Museum for the Zuni People (2007), I explore how the Zuni museum reconciled these differences, both within its own constituency and cross-culturally, and consequently, how it took on the role of mediator between internal and external expectations about Zuni history. 

     

    This research into culturally or disciplinarily distinct knowledges includes how technology and media are used within museums and the discipline of anthropology for the production and reproduction of knowledge through replicas, face casts, models and 3D printing, as well as developing frameworks that acknowledge culturally specific responsibilities towards their use and associated knowledge. Within this field, I am particularly interested in developing approaches that integrate anthropology, history, technology and art to form interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to better understand the dynamics of trans-systemic knowledges.

     

    At the Smithsonian, I direct the Recovering Voices program that supports communities in accessing natural and cultural history collections as part of their efforts to revitalize endangered languages and knowledges. My current research projects within this program include working with Native American communities on concepts of health and wellbeing, including developing theories linking health and cultural revitalization, as well as approaches to collection and their care, which considers the role of these within revitalization efforts.

Public Biography

  • My research looks at intersections between different knowledge systems (either culturally or disciplinarily distinct) with the goal of developing interdisciplinary theories and methods that provide insight into the cross-cultural dynamics of knowledge. In particular, I study areas where Native American and non-Native knowledges intersect. Central to this is my fieldwork and ethnography of a tribal museum in the Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico, where I look at challenges faced by Zunis operating between Zuni and Euro-American approaches to the transmission and use of knowledge. Through the book Mediating Knowledges: Origins of a Museum for the Zuni People (2007), I explore how the Zuni museum reconciled these differences, both within its own constituency and cross-culturally, and consequently, how it took on the role of mediator between internal and external expectations about Zuni history. 

     

    This research into culturally or disciplinarily distinct knowledges includes how technology and media are used within museums and the discipline of anthropology for the production and reproduction of knowledge through replicas, face casts, models and 3D printing, as well as developing frameworks that acknowledge culturally specific responsibilities towards their use and associated knowledge. Within this field, I am particularly interested in developing approaches that integrate anthropology, history, technology and art to form interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to better understand the dynamics of trans-systemic knowledges.

     

    At the Smithsonian, I direct the Recovering Voices program that supports communities in accessing natural and cultural history collections as part of their efforts to revitalize endangered languages and knowledges. My current research projects within this program include working with Native American communities on concepts of health and wellbeing, including developing theories linking health and cultural revitalization, as well as approaches to collection and their care, which considers the role of these within revitalization efforts.

Research And Grants

Investigator On

Publications

Selected Publications

Activities

Responsible Collections Areas

  • Native American ethnology collections from the United States of America

Outreach Overview

  • Over the past five years, I have developed exhibits that inform the general public about the interdisciplinary and collaborative work with communities we are developing at the NMNH. This includes co-curation with Joshua Bell (NMNH) and Frank Goodyear (National Portrait Gallery) of the NMNH exhibit Unintended Journeys (2014) on migration as a response to environmental disasters. For the NMNH Wonders exhibit (2017), I curated two sections on collaborative work with Native American communities, including a co-curated section on Zuni pottery with Jim Enote (director of the Zuni A:shiwi A:wan Museum), which resulted in a NMNH roundtable discussion to discuss the nature of collaborations with Native American communities, as well as a section curated with the Wanapum community on revitalizing traditional fishing technology along the Columbia River, and a video on the collaborative work of Recovering Voices. To expand collaboration with Native American communities at the NMNH, I helped organize and host the NSF funded iWise workshop and conference held in partnership with NMNH and NMAI in the NMNH Q?Rius educational center, providing outreach and educational programming for federal program officers, indigenous scholars and educators to look at intersection of indigenous knowledge and science. This was webcast and watched in 30 different countries. As part of my outreach work with Southwest communities, I help host the Hopi Intergenerational Pottery Festival each year at First Mesa in Hopi, Arizona.

Teaching Overview

  • The key principle that defines my educational activities is the idea that museums, anthropological research, teaching and associated communities are synonymous. When brought together, these four elements considerably increase the educational impact of an institution, such as the Smithsonian. As part of this endeavor I teach interdisciplinary graduate courses for George Washington including ‘Museum Anthropology’, and the recently developed new curriculum to reflect contemporary issues affecting research on humans in museums: ‘Anthropology, Museums and the Body’. This graduate course involves five curators from NMNH, the National Museum of American History (NMAH) and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in physical and cultural anthropology, medicine, art, ancient DNA, as well as hands-on research with collections at the NMNH, NAA and NMAH. I am also the Principal Investigator for the “Borders: Museums in the Age of Global Mobility” Wenner Gren funded project, which was launched as workshop in Mexico City in 2017, convening 20 anthropology, museology and migration scholars from Brazil, China, Japan, South Africa, Portugal, Canada, Germany, Italy, the UK, Mexico, and the United States. The borders concept is used to analyze critical topics in museums, anthropology and migration, as well as practices that fragment or cohere the disciplines, creating multilingual forums for museology to address problems caused by language barriers. We have partnered with the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology (MOA), the Americas Research Network (Arenet), the UDLAP Jenkins Graduate School and the Fundacion Casa Wabi in Mexico. This project expanded in 2018 to include the Museum of Ethnology in Japan and the American Anthropological Association through the World on the Move project. See the project website at: https://bordersandinterruptions.wordpress.com


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