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Lou Brown

Research Scholar, Senior
John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute
Box 90403, 114 S. Buchananblvd Smith War, Durham, NC 27708
114 S. Buchanan Blvd, Box 90403, Durham, NC 27708-0403

Overview


I am Senior Research Scholar and Director of Programs for the Forum for Scholars and Publics at the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University. A sociocultural anthropologist by training, I have worked in Madagascar, Nepal, and the United States conducting original research and facilitating multidisciplinary public engagement. My teaching, research and public engagement work has increasingly explored the relationship between place, sensory experience, archives, and the creation of individual and collective meaning. My recent publications draw on research conducted as part of a multi-sited collective of researchers exploring the everyday material manifestations of COVID-19. I am also a lead researcher on “Archives and Creative Process: Blues Women and Rosetta Records,” a project at Duke University that convenes a multidisciplinary group to find and tell the stories of the women whose music was produced and distributed through Rosetta Records. My work has been funded by the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the National Science Foundation, Fulbright IIE, the Russell Sage Foundation, and various internal grants at Washington University in St. Louis and Duke University. 

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Recent Publications


Collecting and Curating COVID-19 Heritage: Challenges of Conservation and Management

Journal Article Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites · January 1, 2022 The COVID-19 pandemic raises questions about curation, collecting, and the ethics of documenting a traumatic event as it occurs in real time. Such concerns became clear as the co-authors embarked on a multi-sited study of the pandemic’s impact on four comm ... Full text Cite

Private Struggles in Public Spaces: Documenting COVID-19 Material Culture and Landscapes

Journal Article Journal of Contemporary Archaeology · January 1, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted nearly every facet of our world, including some of the most fundamental forms of human behavior and our conception of the social. Everyday activities now pose a risk to individuals and to society as a whole. This radical ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Well-being and the Moral Worlds of Refugees

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation · 2011 - 2012

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