Adam Solomonian
PhD student
MA, Cultural Anthropology, University of British Columbia (2009)
BA Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Supervisor: Dr. Jennifer Kramer
Email: solly81(at)interchange.ubc.ca
Research interests: anthropology of photography; sovereignty; indigeneity; archives; materiality; cultural memory; new media
Current Project: An interest in the anthropology of photography, materiality, and cultural memory informs my PhD research with the shíshálh Nation on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. My research seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of: (i) how Canadian Aboriginal communities are asserting sovereignty in a globalized, post-colonial world through their visual and material culture; (ii) how new media technologies are combined with indigenous protocols to ensure the appropriate management of cultural heritage; and (iii) how visual archives and collections are produced and interpreted by Aboriginal communities as an active process of decolonization.
Conference Presentations and Guest Lectures:
2011 (upcoming) Presentation, “Photography, Truth, and Litigation: Some Ethical Considerations,” Society for Visual Anthropology Roundtable Discussion, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, November 16-20, Montreal, PQ
2011 Presentation, “Practice Makes Stranger: Anthropology and the Something-Other-Than Field,” UBC Department of Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, Vancouver, March 28, Vancouver, BC
2010a Presentation, “From Archive to Disk Drive: Photography, Narrative, and the Digital Horizon,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, November 17-21, New Orleans, LA
2010b Presentation, ““Finding Agency in Agency Testimonies: Nuxalkmc
and the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs, 1913-1916,” American Society for Ethnohistory Annual Meeting, October 14-17 Ottawa, ON
2010c Guest Lecture, “Photography and Aboriginal Peoples in British Columbia,” ARTH 376, University of British Columbia
2010d Presentation, “Something Like Enchantment: Thlitsapilthim and the
Ethics of Inexplicability,” UBC Department of Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, March 21, 2010 Vancouver, BC
2010e Guest Lecture, “Harlan Smith’s Bella Coola Photographs and the Legacy of Photographic Representation in Anthropology,” ANTH 431, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia
2009a Presentation, “Reflections on Fieldwork from Bella Coola,” Musqueam 101, October 7, 2009, Vancouver, BC
2009b Presentation, “From Ethnographic Data to Family Photos: Some Nuxalk Renegotiations of Harlan I. Smith’s Bella Coola Valley Photographs,” Canadian Anthropology Society Annual Conference, May 13-16, 2009 Vancouver, BC
2009c Presentation, “’I Want to Know What He Was Doing in Newskultz’: Harlan Smith’s Nuxalk Photographs and Contemporary Narratives of Place in Bella Coola, BC,” BC Studies Conference April 30 - May 2, 2009 Victoria, BC
2008a Guest Lecture, “Harlan Smith’s Bella Coola Valley Photographs” ARTH 376, Department of Art History, University of British Columbia
2008b Presentation, “’Coming In/Going Out’: A Discussion on Recent Fieldwork in Bella Coola, BC,” Department of Anthropology Learning Community, University of British Columbia
2008c Presentation, “Indigenous Radio and Discourses of Empowerment: CKRK Mohawk Radio and the Wawatay Communications Society – Two Case Studies” Department of Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, University of British Columbia
2008d Panel Chair, “Media, Art, and Representation,” Department of Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, University of British Columbia
Associations:
American Anthropological Association
Society for Visual Anthropology
American Ethnohistorical Society
International Visual Sociology Association
Canadian Anthropological Associa