Noteworthy

MONICA SMITH podcast on archaeological connection between cities and nations

The old-fashioned concept of “civilization" suggests that cities and political territories are mutually constituted and emerged at the same time in human history. But the two phenomena are actually quite different: cities are point specific locales that tend to be long lived, while nations and empires continually expand and contract their territories and often are short lived. Given these different configurations, how do cities and states mutually exploit each other to sustain themselves? An archaeological perspective, drawing from examples in India and Europe, places our own experiences of cities and states into perspective as an ongoing dynamic of lived urban spaces counterbalanced by national configurations and identities.

STEPHEN ACABADO co-authors essay in Philippine daily on loss of cultural properties of indigenous people

Read the essay here:

https://usa.inquirer.net/61015/ifugao-myths-make-sense-of-archeological-finds

LOTHAR VON FALKENHAUSEN in conversation on Chinese archaeology, moderated by LI MIN

Celebrating the publication of Lothar von Falkenhausen’s collected interviews, a Zoom conversation with the title “What Can Chinese Archaeology Contribute to the World?” was held December 3, 2020, from 2–4 pm. (PST). The discussion was between professor Haun Saussy of the University of Chicago and von Falkenhausen, who is professor of both Chinese archaeology and art history and a core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute. The conversation was moderated by Li Min, an associate professor of East Asian archaeology with a joint appointment in the departments of Anthropology and Asian Languages and Cultures and also a core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute. The volume “Archaeology, Scholarship, and Life: Collected Interviews with Lothar von Falkenhausen” was edited by Meng Fanzhi and published earlier this year by Shanxi Meishu Chubanshe in Taiwan. The event was sponsored by the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA.

Getty publication quotes ELLEN PEARLSTEIN on underrepresented conservation students

Ellen Pearlstein, professor of information studies and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute, was quoted by “The Iris, Behind the Scenes at the Getty” in an article about the Getty Foundation Post-Baccalaureate Internships which benefit underrepresented conservation students. One of the new interns is a member of the Mellon Directed Opportunity for Diversity in Conservation program of which Pearlstein is the principal investigator. Pearlstein teaches in the UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage and was a major contributor to the creation of the PhD program of the Interdepartmental Program in Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials, both part of the Cotsen Institute.