Robert L. Welsch, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Coordinator, Department of Anthropology

Anthropology Department; Behavioral Sciences Division

Courses Taught:

• Introduction to Applied Anthropology
• Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
• Culture Through Film
• Anthropology of Art
• Anthropology of Religion
• Medical Anthropology
• Peoples and Cultures of Oceania
• Peoples and Cultures of Europe
• Anthropological Theory and Ethics

Professional Memberships

• American Anthropological Association
• Northeast Anthropological Association
• Society for Applied Anthropology
• Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
• Pacific Art Association

Research Interests

Anthropology of art, museum collections, symbolism, regional anthropology, history of anthropology, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

Publications

• Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Anthropology. (McGraw-Hill, 2008, with Kirk M. Endicott)
• Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art and Society in the Papuan Gulf of New Guinea (Hood Museum of Art, 2006, with Virginia-Lee Webb & Sebastine Haraha)
• Exploring World Art. (Waveland, 2006, with Eric Venbrux & Pamela S. Rosi)
• Hunting the Gatherers: Ethnographic Collectors, Agents and Agency in Melanesia, 1870s-1930s (Berghahn, 2002)
• An American Anthropologist in Melanesia: A. B. Lewis and the Joseph N. Field South Pacific Expedition, 1909-1913 (University of Hawaii Press, 1998)

Presentations  

• 2011 Northeast Anthropological Association, Franklin Pierce University, “Using Museum Collections to Interpret the Disruptions of World War II on the North Coast of New Guinea”
• 2011 Dartmouth College, “Contemporary Art in Papua New Guinea.”
• 2010 American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, “Using Museum Collections to Interpret the Social Disruptions of World War II.”
• 2009 Vermont Humanities Council, “Eating Symbols: An Anthropologist Looks at the Foods We Eat.”
• 2009 Amherst College, Department of Anthropology, “Using Museum Collections to Understand Cultural Diversity in Papua New Guinea”
• 2008 American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, “Is It Conversion?: Religious Tensions After the Aitape Coast Tsunami of 1998.”
• 2007 De Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, “Indigenous Curation of Contemporary Art in Papua New Guinea: The Chimbu Painters of Port Moresby.”
• 2007 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, “Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art in the Papuan Gulf of New Guinea.”
• 2007 De Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, “Dancing Spirits: Art of the Papuan Gulf in the Jolika Collection.”

Major Museum Exhibitions:

• 2006 Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, “Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art and Society in the Papuan Gulf of New Guinea.”
• 2006-2007 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, “Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art in the Papuan Gulf.”

Conferences Attended:

• American Anthropological Association
• Northeast Anthropological Association (Program Chair 2011)

Grants Received:

• National Science Foundation
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• National Endowment for the Arts
• Fulbright Dissertation Grant
• Fulbright Senior Fellowship

Service (at Franklin Pierce University):

• Coordinator, Department of Anthropology
• Member, University Computer Advisory Committee (UCAC)

Other Affilations:

• Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
• Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY
• Adjunct Curator, Department of Anthropology, The Field Museum, Chicago, IL.

Contact Information:
Phone: 603.899.4161
Email: welschr@franklinpierce.edu