Julie Adams

Research fellow, the Melanesia project
Melanesian collection Department: Africa, Oceania and the Americas

 

Julie is an anthropologist attached to the Melanesia Project, which aims to investigate the contemporary significance of the British Museum collection to the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. In October 2007, she carried out fieldwork on the islands of Erromango and Tanna, in southern Vanuatu, helping to make a film documenting the work of the Melanesia Project. She is currently researching the Museum’s collection from New Caledonia.

Before joining the project, Julie completed a PhD at the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the University of East Anglia. Her PhD investigated the on-going significance of the Maori cloak in contemporary Maori art. She worked on the British Museum’s recent exhibition of its Polynesian collection: Power and Taboo: Sacred Objects from the Pacific.

Contact

jadams@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7323 8046

Current projects

Previous projects

  • Assistant Curator on the exhibition Power and Taboo: Sacred Objects from the Pacific – September 2006 - January 2007

External fellowship

  • Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania

Recent publications

J. Adams, ‘Carving a Space: George Nuku at the British Museum’ in Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings (in press)

J. Adams, ‘A Symbolic Constellation: The Maori Cloak and John Bevan Ford’s Belief in Renewal’ in Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings (2004) pp. 102-112.