The ASU Museum of Anthropology serves as a teaching, public service and research institution.

Teaching: The ASU Museum of Anthropology is concerned with introducing research on objects to undergraduate and graduate education, thus providing hands-on training both in museum anthropology and new ways to understand and interpret our cultural histories. With objects at their center, museums are now acknowledged as a fundamental part of the learning environment. As William Simmons argues “Museums, with their emphasis on real things, communicate with the learner in different ways than does the printed word. In particular, objects are a powerful medium of communicating cultural knowledge in anthropology and areas where material objects are an important part of the story”.

Public Service: The ASU Museum of Anthropology is developing community partnerships as a way to establish an intellectual and cultural environment that is built on both scholarship and local needs. With its position at the center of ASU Tempe campus and the university's anthropological research, the museum provides an accessible location for community members who are interested in anthropology to interact with faculty and students and to learn about university research projects. More importantly, the museum encourages community members to become active participants. For example, we have community curators for the Día de los Muertos exhibit. We believe that we also have a great deal to learn from the community. It is our responsibility not just to communicate scholarship to the community, but to also make the community active creators and investors in this knowledge. Only museums truly provide this form of interaction. With this structure we can develop the university and community’s long-term investment in exploring our local history, and build relationships between those who are most likely to care for the objects and stories that make up our history.

Research: By bringing together different disciplines within the museum, we are able to encourage original research. The museum is a research laboratory that allows us to experiment and test out new ideas and study their impact on the public. The central research goal of the museum is also to push new understandings of both museums and anthropology. With its place within the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, the museum is well placed for this research.

By bringing together research, teaching, and community involvement, museums will encourage original interdisciplinary research.

By synthesizing research, teaching and community involvement within an institution embedded within the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Arizona State University, the museum provides an unequaled opportunity for faculty and students to create new approaches to research and teaching that are also responsive to local needs and community interests. This process begins with an experimental environment for scholars working with objects to develop interdisciplinary research projects that are based on original research that stems from the local environment of the Phoenix Valley.

In addition to exhibitions, the museum organizes public programs including gallery talks, educational workshops, symposiums, round table discussions, film viewings, and tours.

About the Museum | History | Partners