Julie Adams
Research fellow, the Melanesia
project
Melanesian collection
Department: Africa, Oceania and the
Americas
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8046
Email: jadams @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
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.
Current British Museum projects
Previous British Museum projects
Assistant Curator on the exhibition Power and Taboo: Sacred
Objects from the Pacific – September 2006 - January 2007
External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies
Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
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.