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SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
Museum professional with over 20 years of demonstrated success in developing, curating, and managing engaging and accessible museum exhibitions. Proven ability to translate complex scientific, historical, and cultural concepts into compelling narratives for diverse audiences using universal design practices. Exhibits curated to date have focused on natural history, anthropology, archeology, and the history of science. Expertise in interpretive planning, content development, project management, and team leadership. Strong commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in museum practices.
Research specializations include: History and theory of museums and collections across natural-cultural domains • Decolonializing museums • Multispecies ethnographies and Feminist Science and Technology Studies • Museums as ethnographic field sites • Material culture and biographies of objects • Anthropologies of craft and technique • The impact of emerging technologies on objects, museums, and communities, including digital imaging (digitization, 3D modeling, digital repatriation) and biotechnology (genetic sampling, biobanking, rewilding)
EDUCATION
2016 University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. Sociocultural Anthropology
Dissertation: Crafting Nature: An Ethnography of Natural History Collecting in a Genomic Age
2000 California College of Art, M.F.A. Film & Interactive Media
1999 California College of Art, M.F.A. Photography
1997 Sarah Lawrence College, B.A. Museum Studies & Photography
CURRENT INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Dept. of Anthropology, Research Associate
California Academy of Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology, Research Associate
EMPLOYMENT AND RESEARCH APPOINTMENTS
2016-current California Academy of Sciences, Senior Exhibit Content Developer
2017-current California Academy of Sciences, Associate Researcher, Dept. of Anthropology
2017-current Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Associate Researcher, Dept. of Anthropology
2019–2022 Social Science Research Council, Abe Fellowship Research Grant
2019–2022 Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Postdoctoral Fellowship
2019 University of California, Berkeley, Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society (CSTMS), Instructor for graduate seminar, “Animal/Objects: Biographies, Itineraries, Afterlives,” Spring semester 2019
2017–2018 Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Postdoctoral Fellowship
2017 University of California, Berkeley, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Instructor for graduate and undergraduate workshops, “Drawing as Seeing: Object Explorations in the Hearst Museum Collections,” April 12-13, 2017
2015–2016 Wenner-Gren Foundation, Dissertation Fieldwork Grant
2015 Council for Museum Anthropology, Research Grant
2013-2015 Cleveland Museum of Art, Researcher and Exhibit Content Developer
2014–2015 Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Predoctoral Fellowship
2011-2013 University of California, Berkeley, Department of Anthropology, Project Lead, NSF-funded Ars Synthetica project
2013 Smithsonian Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology, Research Grant
2010–2013 National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship
2009-2012 University of California, Berkeley, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, Human Practices Division, Researcher and Content Developer
2010–2011 American Academy in Rome, Prix de Rome in Design
2000-2009 Exploratorium Museum, Exhibit Content Developer
2005-2006 Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Exhibit Content Developer
2004 Mills College, Museum of Fine Arts, “Constructing the Technological Other,” Instructor for graduate seminar and lab, Fall semester 2004
2001 California College of the Arts, “Alternative Photographic Processes,” Instructor for undergraduate seminar and lab, Spring semester 2001
MUSEUM EXHIBITS
2024 California: State of Nature, California Academy of Sciences, Co-Curator and Senior Exhibit Content Developer
2024 Big Picture: Natural World Photography, California Academy of Sciences, Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2024 Academy in Action, California Academy of Sciences, Curator and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2021 Hidden Wonders, California Academy of Sciences, Curator and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2018 Matérialités réfléchies, Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Co-curated with Dan Hicks, Oxford University
2018 Giants of Land and Sea, California Academy of Sciences, Co-Curator and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2018 Gems and Minerals: Unearthed, California Academy of Sciences, Co-Curator and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2017 Earthquake, California Academy of Sciences, Senior Exhibit Content Developer
2015 Global Genome Initiative, Smithsonian Institution, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2014 Surrealist Photography, Cleveland Museum of Art, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2012 Rembrandt Tablet App, Cleveland Museum of Art, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2011 Objectivity: Perspectives on Galileo, American Academy in Rome, Exhibit Curator, Object Designer & Fabricator
2011 ARC Anthropological Research Collaboratory, U.C. Berkeley, Creative Director and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2011 Anthropology of the Contemporary: A Diagnostic, U.C. Berkeley, Creative Director and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2010 SynBERC (Synthetic Biology Research Center), U.C. Berkeley, Creative Director and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2010 Diogenes Lab, U.C. Berkeley, Dept. of Anthropology, Creative Director and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2010 Ars Synthetica, U.C. Berkeley, Dept. of Anthropology, Creative Director and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2009 Evidence: A Case Study In Human Origins, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2009 Remixing Çatalhöyük, Archeological Research Facility, U.C. Berkeley, Creative Director and Lead Content Developer
2009 Digital Nineveh Archives, Archeological Research Facility, U.C. Berkeley, Creative Director and Lead Content Developer
2009 Stories on Money, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Exhibit Content Developer
2009 Polynesian Navigation, Exploratorium, Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2009 Invisible Dynamics, Exploratorium, Media Exhibit Developer
2009 Bios Technika, U.C. Berkeley, Dept. of Anthropology, Creative Director and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2009 1969-2009 at the Exploratorium, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2008 Geometry Playground, Exploratorium, Exhibit Content Developer
2008 Second Skin, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2008 Science from the Poles, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2008 Saturn: Jewel of the Solar System, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2008 Journey to Mars, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2007 Reflections, Exploratorium, Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2007 Ice Stories: Dispatches, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2007 Ancient Observatories, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2007 Mind, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2007 Listening, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2006 Nanoscale Science Education, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2006 Transit of Mercury, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2006 Total Solar Eclipse, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2006 Archimedes Palimpsest, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2005 Transit of Venus, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2005 Origins, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2005 Microscope Imaging Station, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2005 Faultline, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2004 Finding Significance, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2003 Emergent Universe Project, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2003 Accidental Scientist, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2002 2nd Wednesdays, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2002 Traits of Life, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2001 The I-Guide Project, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2001 Electronic Guidebook, Exploratorium, Designer and Lead Exhibit Content Developer
2000 Seeing, Exploratorium, Media Exhibit Developer
2000 Memory, Exploratorium, Media Exhibit Developer
INSTITUTIONAL GRANTS for EXHIBITS
(Grants I have co-authored have secured over $30million in institutional funding)
2019 Hidden Wonders ($2,405,00)
Institution: California Academy of Sciences (Private donor)
2010 Diogenes Lab ($262,000)
Institutions: U.C. Berkeley-Anthropology, National Science Foundation (Grant # AISL-085303)
2010 Ars Synthetica ($120,000)
Institutions: U.C. Berkeley-Anthropology, National Science Foundation (Grant# AISL-0853031)
2009 Evidence ($1,493,336)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# ISE-0452128)
2009 Remixing Catalhoyuk ($142,000)
Institutions: U.C. Berkeley-Archeology, CyArk, The British Museum, Durham University, National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant# FA-33226-95)
2009 Digital Nineveh Archives ($92,000)
Institutions: U.C. Berkeley-Archeology, National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant#RO-22142-90)
2009 Polynesian Navigation ($78,340)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
2009 Invisible Dynamics: Art and Science as Ways of Knowing ($249,271)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-0905069)
2009 Bios Technika ($74,902)
Institutions: U.C. Berkeley, Joint Biological Engineering Institute (JBEI), Synthetic Biology Research Center, U.C. Berkeley (SynBERC), National Science Foundation (Grant# AISL-0853031)
2008 Geometry Playground ($2,993,050)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-0610436)
2008 Saturn: Jewel of the Solar System ($147,300)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
2008 Journey to Mars ($90,560)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
2007 Reflections ($232,560)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Endowment for the Arts (Grant# RO-32345-80)
2007 Ice Stories and Science from the Poles ($1,816,717)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-0733048)
2007 Ancient Observatories ($267,500)
Institutions: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
2007 Mind ($1,749,906)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-0307927)
2007 Listening ($2,098,873)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-0307925)
2006 Nanoscale Science Education Network ($19,999,169 total – $2,100,812 for home institution)
Institutions: Exploratorium, Museum of Science Boston, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, New York Hall of Science, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Museum of Life and Science, Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), National Science Foundation (Grant# ESI-0532536)
2006 Archimedes Palimpsest ($47,300)
Institutions: Exploratorium, Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC), private donor
2006 Geometry Playground ($2,993,050)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL- 0610436)
2005 Origins ($1,332,791)
Institutions: Exploratorium, Natural History-London, CERN, Cold Spring Harbor Lab,
National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-9980619)
2005 Microscope Imaging Station ($2,982,000)
Institutions: Exploratorium, Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center for Research Resources,
National Institutes of Health, Packard Foundation
2005 Faultline ($68,213)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# EAR-9907707)
2004 Finding Significance ($451,628)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-0072917)
2003 Emergent Universe Project ($42,000)
Institutions: Exploratorium, Santa Fe Institute
2003 Accidental Scientist ($1,108,551)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-0104724)
2003 Listening ($2,098,873)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL- 0307925)
2002 Traits of Life ($1,565,354)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# ISE-9814646)
2001 The I-Guide Project ($699,950)
Institutions: Exploratorium, IBM Research, National Science Foundation (Grant# CNS-0205664)
2001 Electronic Guidebook ($651,791)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-9901985)
2000 Seeing ($1,425,214)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# DRL-9725887)
2000 Memory ($610,404)
Institutions: Exploratorium, National Science Foundation (Grant# ISE-9980498)
PUBLICATIONS
Van Allen, Adrian. 2025 (Accepted). “Flight Paths Through the Museum: Paiute Duck Decoys and Bird Specimens from the 1853 Utah Territory Expedition." In Putting Theory & Things Together: Working with Museum Collections, edited by Joshua A. Bell. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Van Allen, Adrian. 2024. “La vie en suspens: Risque et potentiel dans les collections génétiques du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle” (Suspended Life: Risk and Potential in the Genetic Collections of the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle) in Les réserves des musées (Museum Collections), edited by Tiziana Beltrame and Yaël Kreplak. Paris: Presses du Réel, pp: 287-302. PDF: reserves-des-musees
Van Allen, Adrian. 2024. “Feral Biobanks: Craft, Care, and Salvaged Ecologies using Frozen Collections.” Gradhiva, Special Issue: Living Collections. 36: 108-125 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/gradhiva.7458
Van Allen, Adrian. 2023. "Entangled Timelines: Crafting Types of Time Through Making Museum Specimens."Centaurus: European Journal of the History of Science, Special Issue Collections, Knowledge and Time. 65 (2):291-312 (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/j.cnt.5.135353
Van Allen, Adrian. 2022. “Capturing Genomes: The Friction and Flow of Bioinformation at the Smithsonian." In Bioinformation: Worlds and Futures, edited by Silvia Posocco and EJ Gonzalez-Polledo. London: Routledge Anthropology Press, pp. 36-53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367810030-3
Van Allen, Adrian. 2019. “Folding Time: Practices of Preservation, Temporality and Care in Making Bird Specimens.” In Deterritorialising the Future: Heritage in, of and after the Anthropocene, edited by Rodney Harrison and Colin Sterling. Critical Climate Change series. London: Open Humanities Press, pp. 120-154. Book PDF: open-humanities-press
Van Allen, Adrian. 2019. “La valeur changeante des plumes: Objets en plumes et spécimens d’oiseaux d’Amazonie dans les musées français” (Birds, feathers, specimens, data: Embodied Archives and the Changing Value of Museum Collections in the Anthropocene). In Matérialité et valeur dans les musées (Materiality and Value in the Museum), edited by Frédéric Keck. AEstethica series. Paris: l’Ecole normale supérieure Press, pp: 127-147. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.editionsulm.2617
Van Allen, Adrian. 2019. “Reviving Ferrets, Remaking Ecosystems.” Anthropology News 60 (3): 20-23. Special Issue Animalia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/an.1163
Van Allen, Adrian. 2018. “Pinning Beetles, Biobanking Futures: Genetic Voucher Specimens and Shifting Ontologies in Museum Genomics.” New Genetics and Society 37 (04): 387–410. Special Issue Biobanks and the Reconfiguration of the Living. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14636778.2018.1546573
Van Allen, Adrian. 2017. “Bird Skin to Biorepository: Making Materials Matter in the Afterlives of Natural History Collections.” Knowledge Organization, 44(7) 2017: 529-534. Special Issue Knowledge Organization within the Museum Domain. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/0943-7444-2017-7-529
Van Allen, Adrian. 2016. “Crafting Nature: An Ethnography of Natural History Collecting in an Age of Genomics.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, Department of Anthropology. ProQuest ID: VanAllen_berkeley_0028E_16289
Van Allen, Adrian. 2014. “Object Lessons: Visual Anthropology in the Museum” Review of Museums: A Visual Anthropology by Mary Bouquet. Museum Anthropology Review Vol. 8(1) 2014: 86-88. PDF: museum-anthropology-review-vol8 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14434/mar.v8i1.12940
Hsi, Sherry, Joyce Ma, Adrian Van Allen, Kristin Sikes, and Melissa Alexander. 2007. "From “Guerrilla” Methods to Structured Evaluations: Examples of Formative Web Design from the Exploratorium’s Evidence and Mind Projects." In Museums and the Web Vol. 2007. PDF: museum-and-web2007
CONFERENCE PAPERS and INVITED LECTURES
“Interactive Storytelling for Connecting with Nature: A Case Study from the California Academy of Sciences,” panel organizer and leading a hands-on workshop, California Association of Museums (CAM), San Francisco, February 19, 2025.
"Frozen Futures: Crafting Natural History in a Genomic Age," invited panelist for Making Futures by Freezing Life II: More-than-human Cryopolitics panel, organized by Braun Veit, Society for the Social Study of Science (EASST/4S), Prague (virtual), August 20, 2020.
“Of Ferrets and Feral Biobanks: Craft, Care, and Salvaged Ecologies using Frozen Collections,” invited speaker, Collections vivantes au prisme des sciences humaines et sociales (Living collections from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences) conference, organized by Mathilde Gallay-Keller, Mélanie Roustan, Manuel Valentin, Dominique Juhé-Beaulaton, and Serge Reubi. Muséum National d’Historie Naturelle, Paris, Dec 11, 2019.
“Reassembling the Wild: Mining the Museum for an Authentic Bison Genome,” part of the panel Towards an Anthropology of Bioinformation, organized by Silivia Posocco and E.J. Gonzalez-Polledo. American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Vancouver, November20-24, 2019.
“Frozen Futures: Crafting Natural History in a Genomic Age,” part of the panel How Collections End: Objects, Meaning and Loss in Laboratories and Museums, organized by Boris Jardine, Emma Kowal and Jenny Bangham. Society for the Social Study of Science (4S), New Orleans, Sept 4-7, 2019.
“Folding Time: Practices of Heritage, Conservation and Temporality in Making Bird Specimens,” invited speaker, Deterritorializing the Future symposium, organized by Rodney Harrison and Colin Sterling. University College London, London, September 14, 2018.
“The Value of Feathers: Amazonian Featherwork and Bird Specimens as Ecological and Cultural Heritage,” part of panel Art and Anthropology, organized by David Odo and Shalini LeGall. Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) conference, British Museum, London, June 3, 2018.
“Marking Time in the Anthropocene: Taxidermy, Temporality and Practices of Care in the Museum,” invited speaker for the lecture series Relations hommes/animaux: questions contemporaines (Human/animal relations: Contemporary questions). CNRS/EHSS and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, June 21, 2018.
“Birds, Feathers, Specimens, Genomes: The Changing Value of Museum Collections in the Anthropocene,” Postdoctoral Fellow Seminar, Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, April 12, 2018.
“From Bird Skin to Biorepository: Materials and Ontologies in Museum Collections,” invited speaker for the lecture series Relations hommes/animaux: questions contemporaines (Human/animal relations: Contemporary questions). CNRS/EHSS and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, April 5, 2018.
“Flight Paths Through the Museum: The Circulation of Birds, Specimens and Genomes,” Remaking Museums in the Anthropocene conference. Moesgaard Museum and the Aarhus University Center for Ecological Research, Aarhus, Denmark, December 6, 2017.
“From Stereograph Cards to Augmented Reality: Misaligned Bodies and Virtual Whales in the Museum,” part of the panel Embedding Value: Technological Practices in the Museum, co-organized with Hannah Turner. American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Washington D.C., November 26, 2017.
“Flight Paths Through the Museum: The Circulation of Birds, Specimens and Genomes,” part of Birds as Material Culture panel, co-organized with Joshua A. Bell. American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Washington D.C., November 27, 2017.
“Flight Paths Through the Museum: The Circulation of Birds, Specimens and Genomes,” Smithsonian Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA) Symposium. National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., November 23, 2017.
“Specimen, Object, Data: Transforming Collections Across Disciplines,” Roundtable co-organized with Joshua A. Bell at Museum Anthropology Futures. Council for Museum Anthropology inaugural meeting, Montreal, May 26, 2017.
“’Museums Are in The Forever Business:’ Biobanking Tissues, Crafting Specimens and Imagining Futures at the Smithsonian,” part of the panel Futures in the Making. American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Minneapolis, Nov 18, 2016.
“Crafting Nature: Biodiversity Biobanking at the Smithsonian,” Paper presented at Biobanques: Quelles reconfigurations pour le vivant? Approches interdisciplinaires et comparatives (Biobanks: Reconfigurations for the living? Interdisciplinary and comparative approaches) conference. École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHSS), Paris, May 12, 2016.
“An Ethnography of Natural History Collecting in an Age of Genomics,” Peter Buck Fellow Lecture, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., August 11, 2015.
Discussant at SIMA Colloquium 2015, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., July 17, 2015.
“Flight Paths through the Museum: The Circulation of Bird Specimens,” Paper presented at Cargo: Birds as Material Culture symposium, co-organized with Joshua A. Bell, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., July 6, 2015.
“Reassembling the Wild: Mining the Museum for an Authentic Bison Genome,” Paper presented at Disclosures: Meaning and Materiality Across Spaces symposium. George Washington University, Washington D.C., March 20, 2015.
“Object Lessons: Dioramas, Genomes, and Shifting Concepts of Authenticity at the Smithsonian,” part of the panel Afterlives: Interventions in Museum Collections and Ethnographic Contexts. American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Denver, November 20, 2015.
“From Display to Dialogue: Case Studies of Collaborative Methods in Interactive Media for Museums,” Invited lecture. Mathers Museum of World Cultures, University of Indiana, Bloomington, Oct 19-21.
“Objectivity: Perspectives on Replicating a Galilean Telescope,” presentation at the Foundations of Mind Conference. University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, March 7, 2014.
“Replicas, Authenticity, and the Reproduction of Knowledge in the Smithsonian’s 1967 Bushman Diorama,” paper presented at SIMA Colloquium 2014, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., July 29, 2013.
“Manufacturing Nature: Embryos, Metaphors, and the Ethics of De-Extinctioning,” University of California, Berkeley, Department of Anthropology, invited lecture, June 17, 2013.
“Galileo, Kircher, Fermi: Mapping Science in Rome,” Lecture at American Academy in Rome, Rome, May 21, 2011.
TEACHING and MENTORING
Dissertation committee outside member, Kaitlyn Riopelle, “Changing the Museum Climate: Understanding the Role of South Florida Museums in Environmental Education,” Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, University of Miami, 2021.
“Objects of Knowledge: Craft, Care, and the Technoscientific Futures of Museums,” Invited lecture in graduate seminar (Dr. Andrew Bickford, Instructor), Department of Anthropology, Georgetown University, April 8, 2021.
“Crafting Exhibits and Ethnographies in Museums,” Invited lecture and a professionalization workshop on grant writing, museum exhibit curation and alt-academic career paths (Dr. Dan Simmons, Instructor), Department of History, University of California, Riverside, January 31, 2020.
“Biodiversity Biobanking: Craft, Care, and Salvaged Ecologies using Frozen Collections,” invited speaker in museum studies graduate seminar, (Prof. Melanie Roustan), Muséum National d’Historie Naturelle, Paris, December 12, 2019.
"Animal/Objects: Biographies, Itineraries, Afterlives,” Instructor for graduate workshop, Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society (CSTMS), University of California, Berkeley, Spring semester 2019.
STS Futures Initiative, University of California, Instructor for graduate workshops on grant writing, digital ethnographic tools and techniques, and dissertation prospectus writing. June 9-11, 2017.
"Drawing as Seeing: Object Explorations in the Hearst Museum Collections,” Instructor for graduate and undergraduate workshops, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, April 12-13, 2017.
"Photographing Objects in Museum Collections,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA), Instructor for graduate workshop, Washington D.C., July 10, 2015.
“From Display to Dialogue: Case Studies of Collaborative Methods in Interactive Media for Museums,” Instructor for workshop with graduate students and museum staff, Mathers Museum of World Cultures, University of Indiana, Bloomington, October 21, 2015.
“Photographing Objects in Museum Collections,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA), Instructor for graduate workshop, Washington D.C., July 19, 2014.
“Manufacturing Nature: Embryos, Metaphors, and the Ethics of De-Extinctioning,” University of California, Berkeley, Department of Anthropology, invited lecture in graduate seminar (Dr. Mariane Ferme), June 17, 2013.
“Mapping and the Politics of Display,” University of California, Berkeley, Institute for Global Urban Humanities, invited lecture and instructor for undergraduate workshop on mapping technologies, Berkeley, CA, November 5, 2010.
“Constructing the Technological Other,” Instructor for graduate seminar and lab, Mills College, Museum of Fine Arts, Fall semester 2004.
“Alternative Photographic Processes,” Instructor for undergraduate seminar and lab, California College of the Arts, Spring semester 2001.
SELECTED OUTREACH and PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
“Crafting Nature” Zoom webinar, Smithsonian Virtual Science Café, National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C. (virtual) February 4, 2021. https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/after-hours/virtual-science-cafe-tropical-forests-wyoming-himalayan-birds-and-crafting(talk starts at 26:40)
“Biodiversity Biobanking: Craft, Care, and Salvaged Ecologies using Frozen Collections,” invited speaker in graduate seminar, Muséum National d’Historie Naturelle, Paris, Dec 12, 2019.
“Crafting Nature: Biodiversity Biobanking at the Smithsonian,” Long Now Foundation, Ignite talk, October 4, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sioliy7dXc8&t=9s
“Cargo: 3D Scanning, Printing and Casting a Porcelain Natural History Collection,” Artist talk, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Part of the Arts/Industry Residency Program series, Kohler, WI, August 12, 2016.
“Photographing Objects in Museum Collections,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA), Graduate workshop, Washington D.C., July 10, 2015.
“Platform for Experimental, Collaborative Ethnography (PECE)-Design Logics Workshop,” Invited workshop leader, organized by Mike and Kim Fortun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, May 8-9, 2015.
“Photographing Objects in Museum Collections,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA), Graduate workshop, Washington D.C., July 19, 2014.
“Galileo, Kircher, Fermi: Mapping Science in Rome,” Lecture to accompany photography exhibition Zoologia. Compound Gallery, Oakland, CA, August 26, 2011.
https://thecompoundgallery.com/artist-talk-with-adrian-van-allen/
“Mapping and the Politics of Display,” University of California, Berkeley, Institute for Global Urban Humanities, Undergraduate workshop on mapping technologies, Berkeley, CA, November 5, 2010.
“Ars Synthetica: Negotiating Between the Biological and Social Sciences,” Presentation given in collaboration with Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett. Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvouz (LASERs), San Francisco, CA January 5, 2009.
“Ars Synthetica: Negotiating Between the Biological and Social Sciences,” Presentation given in collaboration with Paul Rabinow. Joint Biological Engineering Institute (JBEI), Emeryville, CA, August 17, 2008.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE and ASSOCIATIONS
Board of Directors, Council for Museum Anthropology (2017-2021), Awards Committee Chair
Board of Directors, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, U.C. Berkeley (2015-2019)
Advisory Board, Smithsonian Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (2018-present)
Scientific Advisor, Our Places: Connecting People and Nature exhibit, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (2021-present)
Scientific Committee, Caging the sky: the art, history and anthropology of aviaries conference, Académie de France à Rome-Villa Médicis and Sapienza Università di Roma (2019-2020)
Member, American Academy in Rome Society of Fellows (FAAR’ 2011)
Member, American Anthropological Association (AAA)
Member, Society for the Social Study of Science (4S)
Reviewer, Journal de la Société des américanistes, Knowledge Organization, Museum Anthropology
FIELDWORK SITES +COLLECTIONS RESEARCH in MUSEUMS and LABORATORIES
Phoebe A. Heart Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley, CA, USA, 2018-
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2018-
Muséum National d’Historie Naturelle, Paris, France, 2017-
Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, France, 2017-2018
Orca Articulation Project, Noyo Natural Sciences Center, Fort Bragg, CA, USA, 2017
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2017
Molecular Research Laboratory, Natural History Museum London, UK, 2015
Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford University, Oxford, UK, 2015
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA, 2014-2015
Ambrose Monell Cryo-Collection, American Museum of Natural History, NY, USA, 2014
Division of Birds, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., USA, 2014
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington D.C., USA, 2013
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., USA, 2013
Smithsonian Museum Resource Center, Suitland, MD, USA, 2013
Museo di Anatomia Comparata, Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza,’ Rome, Italy, 2012
Sala della Crociera, Collegio di Romano, Rome, Italy, 2012
La Specola, Florence, Italy, 2012
Museo di Ulisse Aldrovandi, Bologna, Italy, 2011-2012
Museo Etnografico ‘I Pigrini,’ Rome (EUR), Italy, 2011
Museo di Fisica, Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza,’ Rome, Italy, 2011
Museo di Enrico Fermi, Via Panisperna, Rome, Italy, 2011
Museo di Zoologia, Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza,’ Rome, Italy, 2011
Accademia di Lincei. Rome, Italy, 2011
Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy, 2011
Museo Geologia, Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza,’ Rome, Italy, 2011
Museo dell’Erbario di Roma. Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza,’ Rome, Italy, 2011
Museo di Storia di Medicina, Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza,’ Rome, Italy, 2011
Joint Biological Engineering Institute, Emeryville, CA, 2010
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, CA, USA, 2009
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA, 2008
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, 2007
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2001
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