Research Interests:

• Anthropology of Media
• Digital Cultural Heritage
• Indigenous Media
• Digital Ethnography
• Collaborative Methodologies
• Digital Humanities
• Media Arts

Biography

Kate Hennessy is an Assistant Professor specializing in Media at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. She is a cultural anthropologist with a PhD from the University of British Columbia and an MA in the Anthropology of Media from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. As the director of the Making Culture Lab, her research explores the role of digital technology in the documentation and safeguarding of cultural heritage, and the mediation of culture, history, objects, and subjects in new forms. Her video and multimedia works investigate documentary methodologies to address indigenous and settler histories of place and space. As assistant editor of the journal Visual Anthropology Review, she designed its first multimedia volume (2003). Her work has been published in journals such as American Indian Quarterly, Museum Anthropology Review, and Visual Anthropology Review. She is a lecturer and co-organizer of the annual Intangible Heritage and Museums Field School in Lamphun, Thailand (2009-2011, organized by the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre and UNESCO Bangkok), and serves on boards of directors for the Museum of Vancouver, the American Anthropological Association's Society for Visual Anthropology, and the Access to Media Education Society (AMES). She is a co-founder of the Ethnographic Terminalia curatorial collective, which explores the border-zones between ethnography and artistic practice.  

Lab Affiliations
Director, Making Culture Lab
http://hennessy.iat.sfu.ca

Academic Positions
(2010- ) Assistant Professor, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, SFU

(2009- ) Lecturer, Resource Person, Intangible Cultural Heritage and Museums Field School, Lamphun, Thailand. Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre and UNESCO, Bangkok.

(2007-2008) Lecturer, University of British Columbia.

Education:
PhD, Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 2010

MA, Anthropology of Media, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2002

BA, Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 1996

Publications:

A full list of publications can be found on the Making Culture Lab website:http://hennessy.iat.sfu.ca/publications/

Select Publications:

2012 Kate Hennessy. From Intangible Expression to Digital Cultural Heritage. In Safeguarding Intangible Heritage. Michelle Stefano, Peter Davis, Gerard Corsane, eds. Heritage Matters Series. London: Boydell and Brewer.

2012 Kate Hennessy, Ryan Wallace, Nicholas Jakobsen, and Charles Arnold. Virtual Repatriation and the Application Programming Interface: From the Smithsonian Institution’s MacFarlane Collection to Inuvialuit Living History. Museums and the Web 2012: Proceedings, San Diego: Archives & Museum Informatics (April 2012).http://www.museumsandtheweb.com/mw2012/papers/virtual_repatriation_and_the_application_progr

2011 Natasha Lyons, Andy Phillips, Dave Schaepe, Betty Charlie, Clifford Hall, Kate Hennessy, and John Welch. The Scowlitz Site Online: Launch of the Scowlitz Assemblage Project. The Midden (Publication of the Archaeological Society of British Columbia) 43(2):11-14.

2011 Kate Hennessy, Fiona P. McDonald, Trudi Lynn Smith, Stephanie Takaragawa. Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans-27 Works. Visual Anthropology Review 27(1):57-74. 

2011 Robin Ridington, Jillian Ridington, Patrick Moore, Kate Hennessy, and Amber Ridington. Ethnopoetic Translation in Relation to Audio, Video, and New Media Representations. In Born in the Blood: On Native American Translation. Brian Swann, ed. Pp. 211-241. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. 

2010 Kate Hennessy. Asymmetrical Translations: The Art of John Wynne. In borderzones.ca: The Ideas Behind the Exhibit. BorderZones, curated by Karen Duffek. The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. http://www.borderzones.ca/features_jw.html

2009 Kate Hennessy and Craig Campbell. A New Website for the Society for Visual Anthropology. American Anthropologist 111(3):387-390.

2009 Kate Hennessy. A Ituvatuva Ni Vakadidike E Sawau: The Sawau Project DVD (Interactive Media Review). Visual Anthropology Review 25(1):90-92.

2009 Kate Hennessy. Virtual Repatriation and Digital Cultural Heritage: The Ethics of Managing Online Collections. Anthropology News (April 2009):5-6.

2008 Mike Ananny and Kate Hennessy. The Future of Public Institutions: New Media, the Press, and the Museum. (Symposium Report) Canadian Issues (Summer 2008):50-52.

2008 Kate Hennessy. The Whale Hunt: An Online Media Project by Jonathan Harris (Interactive Media Review). Museum Anthropology Review 2(2):132-135.http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/issue/view/5

2008 Amber Ridington and Kate Hennessy. Building Indigenous Agency Through Web-Based Exhibition: Dane-Wajich – Dane-zaa Stories and Songs: Dreamers and the Land. in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.). Museums and the Web 2008: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, published March 1, 2008 athttp://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/ridington/ridington.html

Select Screenings + Installations

Recent and ongoing projects:

The Inuvialuit Living History Project (ongoing)
A collaboration between the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre, the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center 

The Scowlitz Artifact Assemblage Project (ongoing)

Ethnographic Terminalia (Philadelphia 2009, New Orleans 2010, Montréal 2011, ongoing)

Active Pass to IR9 (2008)
A collaboration with Richard Wilson. Video Installation.

Dane Wajich––Dane-zaa Stories and Songs: Dreamers and the Land
A collaboration with the Doig River First Nation and Amber Ridington 

Research Community Service

• 2009-- Board Member, Access to Media Education Society (AMES) http://www.accesstomedia.org/
• 2006- Website Committee Co-Chair (with Craig Campbell), Society for Visual Anthropology, American Anthropological Association. http://societyforvisualanthropology.org/
• 2008-09 Reciprocal Research Network Co-chair, Collaborative Research Pilot Project Working Group. Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia. http://www.rrnpilot.org/login
• 2006-08 Annual Meeting Program Co-Chair (with Aaron Glass), Society for Visual Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.
• 2006-09 Elected Board Member, Society for Visual Anthropology, American Anthropological Association

Awards

• Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship (2006-2010)
• Jean Rouch Award for Collaborative Ethnography (Society for Visual Anthropology, American Anthropological Association) (2008)
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Graduate Scholarship (2005-2009)
• Canadian Polar Commission Scholarship (2006-2007) 
• Commonwealth Scholarship, United Kingdom (2001-2002) 

Website: hennessy.iat.sfu.ca/