John Mack (anthropologist)

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John Mack FBA FSA (born 10 July 1949 [1] in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a British social anthropologist and art historian specialising in African arts and cultures (particularly Equatorial African and the western Indian Ocean). He is an academic and former museum curator.

Contents

His research focuses mostly on the Congo area, South Sudan, Kenya, Madagascar and Zanzibar, and addresses questions of memory and art, the process of miniaturisation, the cultural significance of the sea and more recently the relationship between art and death. [2]

Career

John Mack attended Campbell College, Belfast before studying for BA (Hon) in Social Anthropology (1971) and MA in The History of Ideas (1972) both at the University of Sussex. He obtained his D.Phil at Merton College, University of Oxford (1975) for a thesis entitled “WHR Rivers and the contexts of anthropology”. [2]

Mack held a series of curatorial appointments at the British Museum (initially at the Museum of Mankind) from 1976 to 2004. In May 1976, he became a Research Assistant, before being appointed Assistant Keeper in November 1976 and Keeper of Ethnography (1991-2004). He also served as the British Museum's Senior Keeper from 1997 to 2003. [3]

Since 2004, Mack has been Professor of World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich where he was Director of Research in 2007–2008, before becoming the Head of the School of World Art and Museology (2009-2012). [4]

At the University of East Anglia, he has also served on the Sainsbury Research Unit Advisory Board (1999-2015), on the Board of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (2009-2018) and he co-founded with Anne Haour UEA's Centre for African Art and Archaeology in 2009. [5] Elsewhere he is also the Chair of the Editorial Board of World Art, [6] as well as a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Material Culture [7] and the Journal of Art Historiography. [8]

Mack has conducted field research in South Sudan and Northern Kenya (1979, 1980), in Madagascar (1984, 1985, 1987), in Zanzibar (1994) and again in Northern Kenya (2008). [2]

Recognition

Mack was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1994 and became a Fellow of the British Academy in 2009 (emeritus in 2019). [9]

He was made an Hon. life Vice President of The British Institute in Eastern Africa in 2017, after being its president from 2005 to 2011 and prior to that a Board Member. [10]

He is also a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and of the Salzburg Global Seminar. [11]

In May 2022 a conference celebrating John's distinguished career, contribution to scholarship and support of colleagues and students was organised at the University of East Anglia.

Major exhibitions and galleries

Mack has curated a number of major museum exhibitions and galleries across his career, both at the Museum of Mankind/British Museum [12] and at international venues.

At the British Museum, he had overall responsibility for the Mexican Gallery (1994), the North American Gallery (1999) and the Wellcome Trust Gallery (2003). [3]

Mack has also contributed to a number of other museum organisations. He has been a Board Member of the West African Museums Programme (Dakar, Senegal) (1993-1998), a Trustee of the Horniman Museum and Gardens, London (1998-2011), on the Board of Visitors of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford (1999-2011) and a Member of the Conseil d’orientation de l’Etablissement public du Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris (1999). Since 2014, he has been a Trustee of the South Asian Decorative Arts and Crafts Collection, Norwich. [18]

Selected publications

Amongst numerous articles and other edited or authored books, [19] Mack has published the following:

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References

  1. ↑ "Birthdays". The Times. 10 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "John Mack - Sainsbury Research Unit". www.sru.uea.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  3. 1 2 Kingston, Sean (December 2003). "Anthropology and the British Museum: A Conversation with John Mack". Anthropology Today. 19 (6): 13–17. doi:10.1111/j.0268-540X.2003.00231.x.
  4. ↑ "John Mack - Research Database, The University of East Anglia". people.uea.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  5. ↑ "Centre for African Art and Archaeology - Groups and Centres - UEA". www.uea.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  6. ↑ "World Art". Taylor & Francis. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  7. ↑ "SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals". SAGE Journals. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  8. ↑ "Editorial advisory board". Journal of Art Historiography. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  9. ↑ "Professor John Mack FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  10. ↑ "BIEA's Governing Council |" . Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  11. ↑ "Mack, Prof. (Brian) John, (born 10 July 1949), Professor of World Art Studies, University of East Anglia, since 2004 (Head, School of World Art and Museology, 2009–12; Chairman, Sainsbury Institute for Art, 2011–15)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U25799. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4 . Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  12. ↑ "British Museum - John Mack". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  13. 1 2 "British Museum - African Textiles". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  14. ↑ "SETAGAYA ART MUSEUM". SETAGAYA ART MUSEUM. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  15. ↑ Schildkrout, Enid (1992). "Revisiting Emil Torday's Congo. "Images of Africa" at the British Museum". African Arts. 25 (1): 60–100. doi:10.2307/3337021. ISSN   0001-9933. JSTOR   3337021.
  16. ↑ "Review: The Museum of the Mind: Art and Memory in World Cultures". the Guardian. 26 April 2003. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  17. ↑ "Africa". The British Museum. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  18. ↑ "The SADACC Trust". The South Asia Collection. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  19. ↑ "John Mack - Research Database, The University of East Anglia". people.uea.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  20. ↑ "The Artfulness of Death in Africa by John Mack from Reaktion Books". www.reaktionbooks.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  21. ↑ The Sea: A Cultural History. Reaktion Books.
  22. ↑ "British Museum - The Art of Small Things". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  23. ↑ "British Museum - Emil Torday and the Art of the Congo". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
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