Jennifer Kramer

  • Assistant Professor
  • Curator Pacific Northwest, Museum of Anthropology
  • jennifer.kramer(at)ubc.ca
  • (604) 822-9851
  • Ph.D. Columbia, 2003

Research Interests

Dr. Kramer's research is in the areas of visual culture and the anthropology of art, specifically focused on the First Nations of the Northwest Coast. She has worked with the Nuxalk Nation of Bella Coola, BC since 1994 on issues of cultural revival, bi-cultural education, contemporary identity production, and fourth world nationalism. She has researched the commodification of heritage in the Western art market, museums as contested sites of representation, and the reclaiming and repatriation of cultural property. Her interests include the intersection of native ownership with Western legal realms of intellectual property, copyright and cultural patrimony laws.

Current research involves collaborative fieldwork with Nuxalk and Kwakwaka'wakw communities on the re-organization of their collections in the Museum of Anthropology's new Research centre using indigenous classification. Respectful representation, community approved heritage stewardship, and making the Museum of Anthropology a more welcoming place for First Nations' access and research are the goals. This research is supported by the 2006-2009 SSHRC grant "Bridging Knowledge Communities." Kramer is also the co-editor of an anthology of extracts in progress titled: "The Idea of Northwest Coast Native Art: A Critical Historiography" with Dr. Charlotte Townsend-Gault and Ki-ki-en (Ron Hamilton). 29 contributors are involved. It will be submitted to UBC Press for peer review in November 2008.

Publications

  • 2007 Book Review of Art of the Northwest Coast by Aldona Jonaitis. Posted on Museum Anthropology Review October 23, 2007. PDF
  • 2006 Switchbacks: Art, Ownership, and Nuxalk National Identity. UBC Press: Vancouver
  • 2006 Book Review of Ciuliamta Akluit: Things of Our Ancestors: Yup'ik Elders Explore the Jacobsen Collection at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin American Anthropologist 108(4):896-897
  • 2005 "Mapping Native Lives" Canadian Literature 186:136-8
  • 2004 "Figurative Repatriation: First Nations 'Artist-Warriors' Recover, Reclaim, and Return Cultural Property through Self-Definition" Journal of Material Culture 9(2):161-182. PDF
  • 2000 "First Nations Identity" Canadian Literature 167:126-129
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