Dr Lisa Bernasek

Senior Lecturer

School of History, Archaeology and Philosophy

Lisa.Bernasek@winchester.ac.uk

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Biography

I hold a BA in Near Eastern Studies (Princeton University), an MA in Social Anthropology (Harvard University) and a PhD in Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies (Harvard University). My PhD research focused on the collection, exhibition and circulation of North African art and material culture in state museums and North African-run cultural sites in Paris. I have worked in the UK Higher Education sector since 2007 at the University of Southampton, the University of Oxford, and for the Higher Education Academy. I joined the University of Winchester in June 2017 as a Lecturer in Social Anthropology and I am the Programme Leader for the BA Anthropology and the BA Anthropology and Archaeology.

Higher Education Teaching Qualification: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Areas of expertise

Anthropology of migration and diaspora
Material culture and ethnographic museums
Languages and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa
Muslim minorities in Europe
Ethnographic methods

Publications

Bernasek, L. (2019) COLONIAL, POPULAR, AND SCIENTIFIC? The Exposition du Sahara (1934) and the Formation of the Musée de l'Homme. Museum Anthropology. 42(2) 89-108. https://doi.org/10.1111/muan.12213.
Demossier, M., Bernasek, L. & Armbruster, H. (2019) Teaching ethnography as Modern Languages method: legacies and future practices for global citizens. Language, Culture and Curriculum 32(3): 285-298. DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2019.1661685
Bernasek, L. (2010) First Arts of the Maghrib: Exhibiting Berber Culture at the Musée du Quai Branly. In Hoffman, K.E. and Miller S.G. (eds) Berbers and Others: Beyond Tribe and Nation in the Maghrib. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Bernasek, L. and Canning, J. (2009) Influences on the Teaching of Arabic and Islamic Studies in UK Higher Education: connections and disconnections. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 8 (3): 259-275.
Bernasek, L. (2008) Artistry of the Everyday: Beauty and Craftsmanship in Berber Life. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum Press.
Bernasek, L. (2007) Representation and the Republic: North African art and material culture in Paris Harvard University, Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies, Doctoral Thesis.
Bernasek, L. (2000) Unveiling the Orient, Unmasking Orientalism: Sophia Poole's Englishwoman in Egypt. Cairo Papers in Social Science 23 (3): 50-79.

Reports

Bernasek, L. and Bunt, G. (2010) Islamic Studies Provision in the UK: a report to HEFCE by the Higher Education Academy. Bristol: HEFCE. (Available for download HERE).
Bernasek, L. and Bunt, G. (eds) (2008) International Approaches to Islamic Studies: a report to HEFCE. Bristol: HEFCE. (Available for download HERE).

General interest articles

Bernasek, L. and Bunt, G. (2010) Perspectives on Islamic Studies in Higher Education. Perspectives: Teaching Islamic Studies in Higher Education. 1: 18-23.
Bernasek, L. (2009) Middle Eastern Studies in the UK. Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies Good Practice Guide. (Available for download HERE).
Bernasek, L. (2008) Teaching Arabic: the view from the US. Liaison Magazine 1: 33-35.
Bernasek, L. (2005) Imazighen! Beauty and Artisanship in Berber Life. Ornament 28 (3): 52-55.

Book reviews

Bernasek, L. (2022) Review of Berber Memories: Women and Jewelry in Morocco Through the Gillion Crowet Collection by Michel Draguet. West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture. 29:1, 131-133.
Bernasek, L. (2019) Who needs Arab-Jewish identity? interpellation, exclusion, and inessential solidarities, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 18:2, 258-259, DOI: 10.1080/14725886.2019.1597498
Bernasek, L. (2010) Review of Loughran, Kristyne and Becker, Cynthia, Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection. African Arts 43 (3): 92-3.
Bernasek, L. (2009) Review of Loughran, Kristyne and Becker, Cynthia, Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection. H-AfrArts, H-Net Reviews. July, 2009. Read it online.
Bernasek, L. (2007) Review of Amazigh Arts in Morocco: Women Shaping Berber Identity by Cynthia J. Becker. Journal of North African Studies 12 (4): 570-73.

Conferences

Selected presentations

The Politics of Cultural Heritage: Should Collections of Amazigh Art and Material Culture be Repatriated? Diaspora and Indigeneity: Intersections of Modern Jewish, Kurdish, and Amazigh History, Conference at the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies, March 27–29, 2023.
(with Professor Marion Demossier and Dr Heidi Armbruster, University of Southampton) Lessons from teaching ethnography for students of languages. Panel: Teaching Ethnography as Method: Legacies and Future Practices, European Association for Social Anthropology conference, Milan, July 2016.
How to prepare and support students for residence abroad through ethnography and digital tools. Higher Education Academy Arts and Humanities conference, Brighton, 3 March 2016. Find out more.
Moroccan Garments in the Peabody Museum, Harvard. Symposium on Moroccan Textiles, University College London, 3 December 2011.
Cultural Objects in the Diaspora: Berber art and material culture in Paris. British Society for Middle Eastern Studies annual conference, Leeds, 4-6 July 2008.
The Taste for Moroccan Arts in Paris, 1917-2006. Middle East Studies Association annual conference, Boston, 18-21 November 2006.
The Future of Amazigh Arts in Paris. Berbers and Others: Shifting Parameters of Ethnicity in the Contemporary Maghrib Conference, Harvard University, 28-29 April 2006.

Invited presentations

First Arts and North African Cultures at the Musée du quai Branly, Paris. Anthropology and Ethnography Study Day (outreach event). Centre for Anthropology, University of Southampton, 6 February 2016.
Islam, Secularism and the Berbers of North Africa. Being Human Festival: Religion and Me (outreach event). University of Southampton, 22 November 2015.
Secularism and the ‘Muslimisation’ of North Africans in France. Parkes Institute seminar series, University of Southampton, 28 April 2009.
Arts Premiers and Diasporic Objects: Berber art and material culture in Paris. Transnational Studies seminar series, University of Southampton, 24 October 2007.

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Research interests

My broad area of research interest is in ethnographic approaches to the languages and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa and their diasporas in Europe, particularly France and the United Kingdom. My interests encompass transnational migration; Muslims and other minorities in Europe; Berber communities in North Africa and Europe; material culture, museum collections, and the politics of representation; and colonial and post-colonial history and anthropology.

My PhD research involved approximately 20 months of field research on North African arts and cultures in Paris as well as a shorter period of fieldwork in Morocco on the Amazigh (Berber) Cultural Movement. I investigated multiple sites, including state-run museums like the Musée du Quai Branly and its predecessor the Musée de l’Homme, as well as community-run sites and associations devoted to the exhibition and performance of North African arts and cultures. The analysis illuminates the ways in which material culture is used to negotiate the French republican model of universalism and assimilation and the visibility of North African communities and cultures in the public sphere.

In 2004 I co-curated an exhibition of North African arts at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University titled 'Imazighen! Beauty and Artisanship in Berber Life'. Based on my research for this exhibition I wrote a monograph about the collections and their main collectors.

My current research interests focus on tracing indigenous agency in ethnographic museum collections. I am currently working on a project that interrogates an important collection of material culture from the Kel Ahaggar Tuareg collected by the anthropologist Jeremy Keenan and housed at the Horniman Museum in London.

Supervision of research students

Dr Bernasek welcomes enquiries about postgraduate research. Areas of supervision are: Ethnographic projects with a focus on the anthropology of migration and diaspora; Muslim communities in Europe and the UK; Middle East and North Africa region; ethnographic museums and collections.