Dec

Igor Krupnik is 2019 Distinguished Scholar in the Humanities

Dr. Igor Krupnik, Curator of Arctic and Northern Ethnology and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, has been chosen to receive the 2019 Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Award in the Humanities. The award, first given in 2000, celebrates excellence in all branches of Smithsonian scholarship by honoring the sustained achievement of two outstanding Smithsonian scholars each year—one in the sciences and one in the humanities. The winners are asked to deliver a lecture on some aspect of their work to the Smithsonian community and such members of the general public who wish to attend, and receive a medal and a contribution to their research funds.

Krupnik was trained as a geographer and ecological anthropologist (Ph.D. 1977). He studies ecological knowledge, modern change, and cultural heritage of indigenous people of the circumpolar North. He has collaborated with indigenous communities, primarily in Alaska and the Bering Strait Region on several projects in the documentation of local knowledge about climate change and in the opening of archival and museum collections for community use in education and heritage work. He publishes extensively, in both English and Russian, on indigenous adaptations to social and environmental change, history of research in the polar regions, and the value of museum, archival, and photographic collections related to northern indigenous people. Among his other distinctions, in 2012 he was awarded the International Arctic Science Committee’s medal for “bridging between natural and social sciences as well as to the knowledge of the indigenous Arctic residents” and for his role in promoting socio-cultural and humanities studies in polar research. His lecture dwells on his long experience in the shifting methods, philosophy, and ethics in collaboration with indigenous communities as well as on almost three decades of his work at the Smithsonian.

UPDATE

Igor presented his lecture, “Heritage in Drawers: From Taking In to Giving Back (a Smithsonian journey)” Wednesday, Dec. 11. Watch the recorded webcast below.