Museum director Barker honored

Receives Society for American Archaeology's 2008 Presidential Award

Alex Barker, director of the University of Missouri's Museum of Art and Archaeology, received the Society for American Archaeology's Presidential Award at its annual meeting March 28, 2008.

Barker was cited for his exemplary work to raise collective awareness of ethical concerns in archaeology. Barker has "demonstrated that a concern for ethics is not mere moralizing or sanctimonious finger wagging," says SAA President Dean Snow, "but rather a vital component of any profession."

Barker has served as Chair of the SAA Ethics Committee for the past seven years, as well as serving on both the SAA Committee on Museums, Curation and Collections and the SAA Task Force on Culturally Unidentifiable Human Remains.

He has also been closely identified with broader issues of cultural property and antiquities within museums and archaeology, including work with the American Association of Museums, and the American Anthropological Association, whose Ethics Committee Barker chaired last year.

"What's at issue isn't merely a static past," says Barker. "Archaeological ethics is concerned with who has rights to the past, who owns antiquities, who controls how the past is interpreted, and ensuring that the archaeological record is preserved to be contested by future generations."

Presidential awards are given to recognize extraordinary services to the SAA and to the discipline of archaeology. Awardees are selected by the President of the Society in consultation with the Board of Directors.

Barker joined the Museum of Art and Archaeology as director in April 2006.

The Museum of Art and Archaeology is located in Pickard Hall on historic Francis Quadrangle, at the corner of University Avenue and South Ninth Street, on the University of Missouri campus. The only accredited museum in the University of Missouri system, and the only accredited art museum in mid-Missouri, it houses more than 14,000 objects in its permanent collection, ranging from prehistory to contemporary art.

The Society for American Archaeology is an international organization dedicated to the research, interpretation, and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas. With more than 7,100 members, SAA represents professional, student, and avocational archaeologists working in a variety of settings including government agencies, colleges and universities, museums, and the private sector.

Links:

Alex Barker
Museum of Art and Archaeology

Society for American Archaeology