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Gwyneira Isaac
Curator of North American Indigenous CultureDepartment / Division
Education
- M.Phil., Oxford University
- B.F.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Ph.D., Oxford University
Research Interests
Anthropology, Zuni and Southwest Pueblos, knowledge systems, material culture, photography.
Publications
Journal Article
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2024. "A laboratory habit of mind: Exhibit making and nineteenth century experimental anthropology at the United States National Museum." History and Anthropology, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2023.2288020.
- Isaac, Gwyneira, Burgio‐Ericson, Klint, McChesney, Lea, Green, Adriana Greci, Charley, Karen Kahe, Church, Kelly, and Dillard, Renee Wasson. 2024. "Making kin is more than metaphor: Implications of responsibilities toward Indigenous knowledge and artistic traditions for museums." Museum Anthropology, https://doi.org/10.1111/muan.12283.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2022. "Review Essays: Shadows, Strings & Other Things." Museum Worlds, 10, (1) 248–256. https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2022.100120.
- Isaac, Gwyneira, Ahlgren, Ingrid, Corbiere, Alan Ojiig, and Andrews, Judith. 2022. "Being present and bearing witness: talking about cultural revitalization programming in museums." Museum Management and Curatorship, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2021.2023907.
- Isaac, Gwyneira and Colebank, Sadie. 2022. "Anthropological face casts: Towards an ethical processing of their histories and difficult legacies of intimacy and ambiguity." Journal of Material Culture, https://doi.org/10.1177/13591835221123995.
- Isaac, Gwyneira, Marsh, Diana E., Osorio Sunnucks, Laura, and Shelton, Anthony. 2019. "Borders and Interruptions: Museums in the Age of Global Mobility, Mexico City, 7-9 June 2017." Museum Worlds, 7, (1) 182–199. https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2019.070112.
- Isaac, Gwyneira, Finn, Symma, Joe, Jennie R., Hoover, Elizabeth, Gone, Joseph P., Lefthand-Begay, Clarita, and Hill, Stewart. 2018. "Native American Perspectives on Health and Traditional Ecological Knowledge." Environmental health perspectives, 126, (12). https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1944.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2015. "Museums and the Practice of Anthropology: Whose Responsibility is it?" Practicing Anthropology, 37, (3) 19–19. https://doi.org/10.17730/0888-4552-37.3.19.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2015. "Perclusive Alliances: Digital 3-D, Museums and Reconciling of Culturally Diverse Knowledges." Current Anthropology, 56 S286–S296. https://doi.org/10.1086/683296.
- Isaac, Gwyneira and Isaac, Barbara. 2015. "Uncovering the demographics of collecting A case-study of the US Exploring Expedition (1838–1842)." Journal of the History of Collections, 28, (2) 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhv027.
- Isaac, Gwyneira, Bojorquez, April, and Nichols, Catherine. 2012. "Dying to be Represented: Museums and Dia de los Muertos Collaborations." Collaborative Anthropologies, 5 28–63.
- Isaac, Barbara and Isaac, Gwyneira. 2011. "Unexpected trajectories: A history of Niuean throwing stones." The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 120, (4) 369–401.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2011. "Whose Idea Was This? Museums, Replicas and the Reproduction of Knowledge." Current Anthropology, 52, (2) 211–233. https://doi.org/10.1086/659141.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2010. "Anthropology and its Embodiments: 19th Century Museum Ethnography and the Re-enactment of Indigenous Knowledge." Etnofoor, 22, (1) 11–29.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2008. "Technology Becomes the Object: Art, Artifact and Digital Media at the National Museum of the American Indian." Journal of Material Culture, 13, (3) 287–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183508095497.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2006. "What Are Our Expectations Telling Us? Encounters with the National Museum of the American Indian." American Indian Quarterly, 30, (4) 547–596.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2005. "Mediating Knowledges: Zuni Negotiations for a Culturally Relevant Museum." Museum Anthropology, 28, (1) 3–18.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 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, Gwyneira. 1997. "Louis Agassiz's Photographs in Brazil: Separate Creations." History of Photography, 21, (1) 3–11.
- Isaac, Gwyneira, Fontenelle, Wendy, and Kennedy, Tom. 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.
Book Chapter
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2018. "Collecting." In The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. 1–10. London, England: Wiley.
- McChesney, Lea and Isaac, Gwyneira. 2018. "Paying Back: The Hopi Pottery Oral History Project." In Giving Back: Research and Reciprocity in Indigenous Settings. Herman, R. Douglas K., editor. Oregon State University Press.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2015. "'Get to Know Your World': An Interview with Jim Enote, Director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni New Mexico." In Museum Transformations. International Handbook of Museums. Phillips, Ruth and Coombes, Annie, editors. Oxford: Blackwell Press. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118829059.wbihms413.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2014. "The Price of Knowledge and the Economies of Heritage in Zuni." In Museums as Process: Translating Local and Global Knowledges. Silverman, Raymond, editor. 152–168. London: Routledge.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2013. "We'Wha Goes to Washington." In Reassembling the Collection. Harrison, Rodney, Byrne, Sarah, and Clark, Anne, editors. 143–170. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press.
- Isaac, Gwyneira and Bell, Joshua A. 2013. "Smithsonian Institution." In Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia. McGee, R. Jon and Warms, Richard L., editors. 781–785. London: Sage Publications, Inc..
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2009. "Digital Enchantments: The Use of Electronic Media at the National Museum of the American Indian." In Visual Currencies: Reflections on Native American Photography. Henrietta Lidchi and Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, editors. 77–89. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2008. "What Are Our Expectations Telling Us? Encounters with the National Museum of the American Indian." In The National Museum of the American Indian: Critical Conversations. Lonetree, Amy and Cobb, Amanda, editors. 241–266. University of Nebraska.
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2008. "Responsibility Towards Knowledge: The Zuni Museum as a Mediator between Anglo-American and Zuni Knowledge Systems." In Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives. Sleeper-Smith, Susan, editor. 241–266. University of Nebraska Press.
Book
- Isaac, Gwyneira. 2008. Mediating Knowledges : Origins of a Museum for the Zuni People. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.