Morgan B Perkins
Department Chair (Anthropology) and Associate Professor
D.Phil. University of Oxford, 2000
I am a sociocultural anthropologist with research interests in expressive and symbolic culture; especially the anthropology of art, museum anthropology, and engaged anthropology-with an evolving focus on the anthropology of climate change. Beginning with extensive fieldwork in China spanning several decades, my work on the intersections between traditional and contemporary art has become increasingly global, bringing together issues concerning consumption and material culture, globalization and social change, migration and refugees, environmental art, and the subtle intersection between shared and restricted knowledge. I aspire towards collaborations-between students and teachers, artists and anthropologists-and applied learning to develop creative, cross-cultural forms of engagement to envision and create a humane climate and future.
Courses Taught:
ANTH 140 World Art & Culture
ANTH 202 Culture, Power and Identity (Introduction to Cultural Anthropology)
ANTH 270 Museum Studies
ANTH 391 Anthropological Theory
ANTH 358 Cross-Cultural Approach to Art
ANTH 320 Museum Archives & Exhibit
ANTH 371 Anthropology of China
ARTH 395 Art & Culture in China
ANTH 470 Museum Internship
Engaged Anthropology and Art for a Humane Climate (Course in Development).
Primary Current Project:
Museums Without Borders is comprised of several past and ongoing collaborative exhibitions developed through a collective of anthropologists, artists and museum curators. While topics have varied, its current priority is to engage with the climate crisis by uniting the unique qualities of anthropology, art and museums through displays beyond the conventional spaces of museums. We seek to identify innovative ways to help one another, and to help create a humane climate, broadly defined.
Selected Past Exhibitions:
For Our Only Home. St. Lawrence University. 2024. Co-curated with Cathy Shrady. A cross-cultural exhibition on artistic reflections on the climate crisis. Designed to accompany Tibetan Buddhist Chenrezig Sand Mandala: Healing and Compassion in Challenging Times. Richard F. Brush Gallery, St. Lawrence University.
Painting on Location: The Art of Lin Haizhong. Roland Gibson Art Gallery, SUNY Potsdam. 2012.
Bag of Wisdom: Igbo Knowledge and the Art of Obiora Udechukwu. Hosmer Gallery, SUNY Potsdam. 2007.
Icons and Innovations: The Cross-Cultural Art of Zhang Hongtu. Roland Gibson Art Gallery, SUNY Potsdam. 2003.
What Are We Leaving for the Seventh Generation? Seven Haudenosaunee Voices. Co-curated with Katsitsionni Fox. Roland Gibson Art Gallery, SUNY Potsdam, Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes Cave, NY and Akwesasne Museum, Hogansburg, NY 2002-2003.
Selected Publications:
"'A Hundred Ways to Learn' About Zhang Hongtu." 2015. In Zhang Hongtu: Expanding Visions of a Shrinking World. Jerome Silbergeld and Luchia Liu, eds. Durham: Duke University Press.
Asia Through Art and Anthropology: Cultural Translation Across Borders. 2013. Edited with Fuyubi Nakamura and Olivier Krischer. London: Bloomsbury.