HMSC Connects! Podcast

The Journey Home: Repatriating the Gitxaała Totem Pole

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host Jennifer Berglund speaks with Dustin Johnson, a member of and Cultural Program Manager for the Gitxaała Nation, and Kara Schneiderman, the Peabody's Director of Collections, about Peabody Museum’s repatriation process of returning meaningful objects to their origin communities.

Growing Up in the Harvard Museum of Natural History

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host, Jennifer Berglund is speaking with Shoyo Sato, an Invertebrate Biologist who just finished his Ph.D. at Harvard. Shoyo is an old friend to HMSC. He's been volunteering at the Museum of Natural History since he was 12. We wanted to talk to him about that experience, what it has been like to grow up in the museum, how he and the museum have changed, and what it's like to look back at the museum as he steps into a new era of his life.

Making the Museum Accessible to Latino Teens through HMSC’s Hear Me Out Program

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host, Jennifer Berglund is speaking with Abbie Sandoval-Focil, a bilingual museum educator at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, as well as Mia Hortado, a teen student in HMSC's "Hear Me Out" program. The Hear Me out program was created to reach out to the Latino community across Massachusetts and engage them in the goings on at the HMSC museums.

HMSC Turns 10! A Conversation with Leadership, Past and Present

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. HMSC is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year! A lot has changed over 10 years. It's been quite the journey, but we've been guided with grace by two Executive Directors. First, Jane Pickering, who is now the William and Muriel Seabury Howells Director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, one of our partner museums at Harvard. And now, Brenda Tindal, who recently took on a new role as Chief Campus Curator for Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Today, Jennifer is reflecting with them on HMSC's first decade, and imagining how we grow from here.

Journey of a Visual Anthropologist with Ilisa Barbash, Curator of Visual Anthropology at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host, Jennifer Berglund is speaking with Ilisa Barbash, the curator of Visual Anthropology for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, and a documentary filmmaker. In this episode, Ilisa describes her journey through visual anthropology, from film to Peabody curator. We also discuss an upcoming photography exhibition for the Peabody Museum's Gardner Fellowship, which Ilisa curates. This year's exhibition, titled Shehuo: Community Fire, features the work of Zhang Xiao, who explores the transformation of Shehuo, a traditional spring festival held in rural northern China that coincides with the Lunar New Year. It opens on May 13.

Theresa Goell’s Archaeological Legacy with Archaeologist Donald Sanders

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host, Jennifer Berglund is speaking with Donald Sanders, an archaeologist and architect who compiled and published the life's work of Theresa Goell, a 20th-century archaeologist who broke gender and cultural barriers in her field with her work at Nemrud Dagi, an archaeological site in the remote mountainous regions of modern Turkey.

Piecing Together Stories of the Mesoamerican Past with Peabody Archaeologist Jenny Carballo

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host, Jennifer Berglund is speaking with Peabody Archaeologist Jenny Carballo.

Accessing Nature and Science with Scott Edwards, Curator of Ornithology for the Museum of Comparative Zoology

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host, Jennifer Berglund is speaking with Professor Scott Edwards, the Curator of Ornithology for the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Department Chair of Harvard's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

The World According to Natural History Diorama Artist, Terry Chase

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host, Jennifer Berglund is speaking with diorama maker, artist, geologist, and all-around renaissance man, Terry Chase.

Celebrating Egyptology’s Big Anniversary with HMANE Director Peter Der Manuelian

Welcome to HMSC Connects! where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. For this week’s episode host Jennifer Berglund is speaking with Peter Der Manuelian, a professor of Egyptology and the Director of the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East. Peter recently published a book called "Walking Among Pharaohs: George Reisner and the Dawn of Modern Egyptology," a 15-year project that documents the work and life of George Reisner, a Harvard Egyptologist who worked in Egypt during Egyptology's golden age, the era in which Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered.