A report on a project planning workshop--Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global Midwest--held at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, September 4-6, 2014.(1) College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University. (2) The Humanities without Walls Consortium with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Jackson, Jason Baird

English

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Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global Midwest: A Workshop Held at Indiana 
University, September 4-6, 2014!!
Jason Baird Jackson!!
The Mathers Museum of World Cultures (MMWC) and the College Arts and Humanities Institute 
(CAHI) at Indiana University hosted a workshop on Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global 
Midwest on September 4-6, 2014. The workshop brought together students of cultural diversity 
in the China-influenced social world and public humanities scholars working in three university 
museums and two university-based public folklore programs from the Midwestern United States. 
Workshop effort focused on developing a collaborative, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional 
program of research and public programming to explore the experience of Chinese peoples in, 
and moving through, the American Midwest. A secondary—but impactful—activity 
accompanying the convening was a successful campus panel discussion on the present and 
future of “Museums and the Public Humanities.”!!
The Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global Midwest workshop was supported by a Global 
Midwest seed grant awarded to MMWC by CAHI. This grant is part of the broader Global 
Midwest “grand research challenge” initiative of the Humanities Without Walls consortium. The 
Humanities Without Walls consortium, and its initial activities, have been generously funded by 
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.!!
A key element of the workshop was the inclusion of two Indiana University doctoral students 
who brought both a desire to learn more about the development of large public humanities 
research and programming projects (i.e. grant writing, project formulation, budget preparation, 
collaboration strategies, etc.) and rich knowledge of cultural and social circumstances in the 
diverse and globalized world of “Chinese” peoples. Selected through a competitive application 
process and funded in recognition of their time and contributions, these two participants made 
significant contributions to the workshop’s efforts. Sara Conrad is a dual doctoral candidate in 
the Departments of Central Eurasian Studies and Anthropology. Her research focuses on 
commonalities and differences characterizing the experiences of Tibetan mothers in diaspora. 
Her studies have included extensive preparation in Chinese language and culture. Lijun Zhang 
is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. Her research 
focuses on the impact of international and national heritage policies and practices on life in rural 
Hakka communities in eastern China that are being rapidly and dramatically transformed by 
cultural tourism. Conrad and Zhang greatly enhanced the workshop and both reported greatly 
benefitting from the opportunity to participate.!!
Student participation in the workshop as well as the accompanying panel discussion were 
pursued in response to the special emphasis that the Humanities Without Walls consortium 
places on preparing humanities doctoral students for so-called alt-ac (alternative academic) 
careers. Museums and public folklore programs have long represented vital sites for research-
based humanities careers and workshop participants shared rich knowledge of this world with 
panel attendees. !!
The Museums and the Public Humanities panel included all of the non-student workshop 
participants. The event attracted an overflow audience to CAHI and included Indiana University 
humanities faculty, administrators in the College of Arts and Sciences, undergraduates, a large 
number of graduate students, and campus curatorial professionals representing a range of 
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heritage collecting agencies such as the Archives of Traditional Music and the Glenn A. Black 
Laboratory of Archaeology. Many faculty and students conveyed regret at being unable to attend 
the event. For this reason, a recording of the event was made for purposes of developing a 
podcast. Audience members standing outside the room made compilation of a full headcount 
difficult, but 37 attendees, not including the panelists were noted. Project PI and Mathers 
Museum of World Cultures Director Jason Baird Jackson hosted the panel discussion.!!
Other panelists/workshop participants included the following colleagues. Jon Kay is a faculty 
member in Indiana University’s Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and Director of 
Traditional Arts Indiana, a statewide arts agency and a partnership between Indiana University 
and the Indiana Arts Commission. Marsha MacDowell is a faculty member in the Department of 
Art and Art History at the Michigan State University, Director of the Michigan Traditional Arts 
Program, and Curator of Folk Arts at the Michigan State University Museum. Like Traditional 
Arts Indiana, the Michigan Traditional Arts Program is a statewide agency and partnership 
between MSU and the state of Michigan. C. Kurt Dewhurst is a Professor in the MSU 
Department of English and Director Emeritus of the Michigan State University Museum. He 
continues at the museum as Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage and also serves the MSU 
campus as Director of Arts and Cultural Initiatives and as Senior Fellow for University Outreach 
and Engagement. Also participating from the MSU Museum was Mary Worrall, Curator of 
Cultural Heritage and Education Team Co-Manager. Participating from the University of 
Nebraska Lincoln was Marin Hanson, Curator of Exhibitions at the International Quilt Study 
Center and Museum).!!
Participating in the workshop virtually was Dean Rehberger, Director of MATRIX: The Center 
for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences and a faculty member in Writing, Rhetoric and 
American Cultures at MSU.!!
Among the scholars gathering in Bloomington, Hanson is a specialist with a research focus on 
Chinese textiles. All of the non-student attendees have career-long experiences focused on the 
ethnographic study of cultural diversity in the American Midwest. MacDowell and Dewhust also 
have extensive experience pursuing collaborative projects with overseas partners in South 
Africa and the Pacific. All of the attendees are now part of a broader Luce Foundation-funded 
collaboration between the Chinese Folklore Society and American Folklore Society and are 
participating in a program of professional exchanges, conferences, and exhibition development 
linking a network of US and Chinese museums of ethnography. These collaboration, research, 
exchange, and program development engagements in China provided a key context for the 
Midwestern United States-focused Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global Midwest workshop 
and the larger project that the workshop initiated.!!!
Jason Baird Jackson is Director of the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, Editor of Museum 
Anthropology Review, and an Associate Professor of Folklore at Indiana University.!!
© Jason Baird Jackson 2014. Licensed under Creative Commons license BY-NC 4.0
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Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global Midwest: A Workshop Held at Indiana University, September 4-6, 2014

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/2022/19013/1/Global%20Midwest%20Workshop%20Report%20C.pdf

Chinese Vernacular Culture in the Global Midwest: A Workshop Held at Indiana University, September 4-6, 2014

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