Caroline Jean Fernald has been selected as the new executive director of the Harvard Museum of Science and Culture, announced last month by Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra. She began her term on Wednesday.
Mr. Fernald previously served as executive director of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and will oversee partnerships including the collection of historic scientific instruments, Harvard University’s Museum of Near Eastern Antiquities, and the Peabody Museum. . in Archeology and Ethnology, and a PhD from the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
As director of the Hearst Museum, Mr. Fernald, who has a Ph.D. in Native American art history, is responsible for the preservation and repatriation of Native American graves in the museum’s collection in response to federal requests for protection and repatriation of Native American graves. He was involved in the repatriation of American remains and cultural artifacts. Activities.
She will be part of a similar repatriation process at Harvard, which is working to accelerate the repatriation of thousands of Native American remains housed primarily in the Peabody Museum. The extent of the remains held by Harvard University was first revealed in a September 2022 report commissioned by the university, a draft of which was leaked to The Crimson earlier that year.
“I really love going to museums,” Fernald said in an interview. “But I think that when it comes to something that you have a really strong attachment to, you have to take responsibility for the issues surrounding it as well.”
Fernald will succeed former HMSC Director Brenda Tyndall, who was appointed as the first FAS Chief Campus Curator in February last year.
Before joining the Hearst Museum in 2019, Ms. Fernald headed the Millicent Rogers Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico, where one of her favorite exhibits was one depicting plants native to the region. Highlights include painted paintings, textiles and ceramics, he said. She said she intends to bring those influences to local collaborative art practice, an interdisciplinary approach, to her HMSC.
He said HMSC’s wide scope has the potential to “bring together art and science, history and religion” through programs and exhibitions that bridge different sectors.
Fernald also said he is excited to work with Harvard faculty to give students first-hand exposure to the museum’s collections.
“What I really like about museums and higher education is the emphasis on connecting students directly to objects,” Fernald said. “That’s what made me want to work in a museum.”
—Staff writer Neeraja S. Kumar can be reached at neeraja.kumar@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Annabel M. Yu can be reached at annabel.yu@thecrimson.com.