Dr Graeme Were

PhD (University College London)

Lecturer in Museum Studies

Phone: (+61 7) 33652167
Email: g.were@uq.edu.au

Biography

Graeme Were has a PhD in Anthropology (University College London) and convenes the Museum Studies programme at UQ. He specializes in material culture and museum studies and his current interests include the analysis of ethnographic objects; digital heritage and source community engagement; and object-based learning within the university museum. He has a regional specialisation in the Pacific and has published widely in anthropology on: textiles, religious revivalism [the Baha’i movement], and pattern and cognition.

His work includes the recent book Lines that Connect: Rethinking Pattern and Mind in the Pacific (University of Hawaii Press, 2010) and Pacific Pattern (Thames & Hudson, 2005 with S. Kuechler). He has been guest editor on special issues of Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture (with J. Jefferies) and the Journal of Visual Communication. He is an editor of the Journal of Material Culture and a founding editor of Material World Blog. Graeme has been elected to present the 2011 Curl Lecture by the Royal Anthropological Institute (UK).

Research and Teaching Focus

Research

  • Museums: collections, histories and practices especially ethnographic and university museums
  • Material culture: the anthropology of materials, design, and society
  • Ethnomathematics, cognition and learning
  • Pacific ethnographies (regional interests in Papua New Guinea and Tonga)

Teaching Interests

  • Critical museology, material culture, object analysis 

Selected Publications

Books

  • Were, G. (2010) Lines that Connect: Rethinking Pattern and Mind in the Pacific Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
  • Were, G. (2005) Pacific Pattern (with S. Küchler and G. Jowitt) Thames & Hudson: London
     

Edited Volumes and Collections

  • WERE, G. and J.C.H. King Extreme Collecting: Challenging Practices for 21st Century Museums. Oxford: Berghahn, 2012.
  • WERE, G. (2010) Prototypes, special issue of Journal of Visual Communication 9(3)
  • WERE, G. and J. Jefferies (2010) Tensions: Transforming Social Relations, special issue of Textile: Journal of Cloth & Culture 8(1)
  • WERE, G. and S. Kuechler (2005) The Art of Clothing: a Pacific experience UCL Press: London

Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

  • WERE,G. (in press) 'Of skin, blood and bone: the kapkap of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea.' In L. Bolton, L. Bonshek & N. Thomas (eds.) Artefacts of History. London: British Museum Press
  • WERE,G. (2010) 'Re-engaging the university museum: knowledge, collections, and communities at University College London' Museum Management & Curatorship 25(3): 291-304
  • WERE,G. (2010) 'Prototypes: an introduction' Journal of Visual Communication 9(3): 267-272
  • WERE,G. (2010) 'Introduction: Tensions' Textile: Journal of Cloth & Culture 8(1): 4-9, (with Janis Jefferies)
  • WERE,G. (2009) 'Empathy with materials: rethinking the technical nature of action' Techniques et Culture 52-53: 190-211 (with S. Kuechler)
  • WERE,G. (2008) 'Out of touch? digital technologies, ethnographic objects and sensory orders'. In Chatterjee, H. (ed.) Touch in Museums Berg: Oxford, 121-34
  • WERE,G. (2007) ‘Fashioning belief: the case of the Baha’is in northern New Ireland’ Anthropological Forum 17(3): 239-53. Special issue on MacPherson’s theory of the Possessive Individual
  • WERE,G.(2005) 'Thinking through images: kastom and the coming of the Baha'is to New Ireland, Papua New Guinea' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11(4): 659-76
  • WERE,G. (2005) ‘Pattern, efficacy and enterprise: on fabricating connections in Melanesia'. In S. Küchler & Daniel Miller Clothing as Material Culture Berg: Oxford, 159-74
  • WERE,G. (2003) 'Objects of Learning: an anthropological approach to mathematics learning' Journal of Material Culture 8 (1): 25-44

A list of Dr Graeme Were's publications, including fulltext links, can be accessed via UQ eSpace.

Fellowships, Grants, Awards

  • Co-Investigator, Pacific Alternatives project, Norwegian Research Council project working with colleagues in the University of Bergen http://pacific.uib.no/pacific_alternatives.htm
  • Principal Investigator, AHRC funded seminar series in collaboration with British Museum on Extreme Collecting 2007-8 www.ucl.ac.uk/extreme-collecting
  • Principal Investigator, AHRC funded project working on Ethnographic Collections Documentation 2007-8
  • Co-Investigator AHRC/EPSRC funded E-Science project investigating Digital Heritage Technologies 2007-2008 http://www.museums.ucl.ac.uk/research/ecurator/
  • Co-Investigator, ESRC Research workshop series on New Materials, New Technologies 2008 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/conferences/newmaterialsnewtechnologies/index.htm
  • Pasold Conference Fund (2006) – ‘The Fabric of Life: Textile Technologies in Contemporary Society’ One-day workshop at Horniman Museum, London www.ucl.ac.uk/textile-technology
  • ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (2004-5) – ‘The Efficacy of Pattern and Decorative Art in Melanesia ’– Goldsmiths College London
  • British Academy Small Research Grant (2004) – Research fund to investigate crochet and associated fibre techniques in Tonga

Other Activities

  • Convenor of Museum Studies, School of EMSAH 

 

On this site