November 17-18, 2017

Collaborative Curation of North American Human Remains (An IMLS Symposium) is a two-day symposium held at the Field Museum, Chicago, IL. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together leaders from Native North American communities, museum professionals, and scientists to identify issues, discuss multiple perspectives, and develop potential solutions for the care and curation of North American human remains. The topics will include:

• Collaborative Curation: physical care of, storage of, and access to remains

• Research: dissemination, discussing issues of destructive analysis and imaging, and developing collaborative research projects that address stakeholder needs and interests

• Bioanthropology and Museums: documentation and issues of inventorying and affiliating culturally unidentifiable human remains

• Moving Forward: discussions of collaborative projects and fostering communication between stakeholder communities

This symposium is part of a three year Institute of Museum and Library Services funded initiative to research, explore, develop, and implement thoughtful and forward-thinking practices for the ethical care of human remains currently under museum stewardship.

If you have any questions about the symposium, please feel free to contact any of the symposium organizers listed below:

Stacy Drake, (312) 665-7005, sdrake@fieldmuseum.org
Emily Hayflick, (312) 665-7820, ehayflick@fieldmuseum.org
Jamie Kelly, (312) 665-7469, jkelly@fieldmuseum.org
Helen Robbins, (312) 665-7317, hrobbins@fieldmuseum.org

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [MG-30-16-0043-16]