Stacy Drake of the Field Museum to Speak about Human Remains in Museum Collections

’Human Remains in Museums: Addressing Painful Collection Histories through Conservation, Curation, and Collaboration’

Stacey Drake, The Field Museum

13 Feb 2020, 4:00 p.m., IC 4th Floor

While the general public often holds a great interest in viewing and engaging with human remains at educational institutions like museums, the ethical considerations surrounding collections of human remains are complex and ever-changing. In this talk, Dr. Stacy Drake, Collections Manager of Bioanthropology at the Field Museum, will highlight some of these concerns and illustrate some of the ways in which the Field Museum is working to navigate and mitigate potential cultural trauma caused by past collection methods through community engagement and collaborative curation efforts.

Stacy Drake is the Collections Manager for Bioanthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago. She served as Osteologist and NAGPRA Coordinator for the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory in Austin before coming to the Field Museum in 2017, where she has worked to improve documentation and curation of North American human remains.

This is the third event in the 2019-2020 Anthropology Department Annual Speaker Series, centered on the theme of "Re-Pairing Lives and Things: Creation and Connection." The speaker series is partially funded by generous donations from alumni and friends of LUC Anthropology. Contributions are greatly appreciated, and may be made here.