Laura Van Broekhoven is Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Professorial Fellow at Linacre College, University of Oxford. She is also associated to the school of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. Previously she was Chief and Senior Curator at the National Museum of World cultures in Leiden and Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Her current museological research interests include the Postcolonial Praxis, Sharing and Negotiating Curatorial Authority and Restitution and Repatriation. Her academic research topics focus on Maya oral history, Mixtec indigenous market systems and Nicaraguan cultural heritage and ethnohistory.
She is an active member of diverse national and international committees and networks and over the course of her career she has curated several exhibitions and authored numerous books and articles.
Research Projects (selection)
2014-2018 Sharing a World of Inclusion, Creativity and Heritage. Ethnography, Museums of World Culture and New Citizenship in Europe (SWICH). EU Horizon2020 funded project of international consortium Weltmuseum Wien; National Museum of World Cultures; Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale; Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée; Museums of World Culture, Sweden; Linden-Museum, Stuttgart; Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge; Náprstek Muzeum, Prague; Museum of World Cultures Barcelona; Culture Lab - International Cultural Expertise.
2013-2016 Renewal, Innovation and Change: Heritage and European Society (RICHES) FP7 ERC funded project of international consortium: Coventry University (lead); Hansestadt Rostock; Stichting Waag Society; The University of Exeter; Promoter S.r.l.; Fundacio Privada I2CAT; Syddansk Universitet; Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz; Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı.
2013-2015 Compartilhando Coleções e conectando Histórias NME and Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Brazil. Project with Ka’apor community do Alto Turiacu with Claudia López and Mariana Francozo; funded by Ibermuseus “Conversaciones II” Programme of the OEI: Organização dos Estados Ibero- americanos/Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture; NIAS; Goeldi, RMV.
2012-2017 The Penard Carib Shamanic Encyclopaedia: On Sacrecy and Secrecy. Project with the Vereniging van Dorpshoofden, Paramaribo Suriname; Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde and Universiteit Leiden.
2012-2016 Turbulent Lives, Material and Cultural Biographies of Mixtec artefacts NWO Science4Arts project lead by Prof dr Maarten Jansen in joint collaboration with NME, Technical University Delft, the Italian MOLAB team and the Bodleian Library in Oxford; and in collaboration with EU FP7/CHARISMA/FixLab, AGLAE, Louvre, Paris. (with Martin Berger, Maarten Jansen & Ludo Snijders)
2008-2013 Ethnographic Museums and World Cultures (RIME) Project funded by FP7 funded project of international consortium including Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren; Musée du Quai Branly, Paris; Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna; National Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg; Rijksmuseum
Volkenkunde, Leiden; Museo de América, Madrid; Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, Prague; Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico ‘Luigi Pigorini’, Rome; Linden-Museum, Stuttgart; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
2008-2013 Yesterday’s Knowledge, Tomorrow’s Future. Learning from the Elders. Community Consultation project on Surinamese indigenous heritage (with Leiden University)
2009-2011 Pasado Robado, Futuro Negado. Protecting heritage in Juigalpa, Nicaragua.
2004-2011 Markets Mirrors of a Mixtec World. Ethnographic and historical research project in Oaxaca, Mexico (with Alex Geurds).
Selected Publications
Books and Edited Volumes:
2016 Patrimônio Indígena e Coleções Etnográficas. Eds Mariana C. Françozo and Laura Van Broekhoven. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi - Ciências Humanas. (Accepted)
2015 Mercados de la Mixteca. Si no hay carro, no hay negocio. Sidestone Press, Leiden.
2013 Creating Authenticity. Authentication Processes in Ethnographic Museum. (with Alex Geurds) Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
2010 Sharing Knowledge and Cultural Heritage in the Americas. Proceedings of the expertmeeting (with Cunera Buijs and Pieter Hovens). Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
2010 The Maya and Their Neighbours. Internal and External Contacts Through Time. (with Rogelio Valencia, Frauke Sachse and Benjamin Vis) 10th European Maya Conference, Leiden. Anton Saurwein Publishers, Markt Schwaben.
2010 Maya 2012. (with Erik Boot and Martin Berger) Amsterdam: KIT Publishers.
2008 Mixtec Writing and Society – Escritura de Ñuu Dzaui. (with Maarten Jansen) Amsterdam: Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Verhandelingen, Nieuwe Reeks vol. 191.
2006 The Social and Linguistic Heritage of Native Peoples in the Americas: The Struggle to Maintain Cultural Particularity. (hors serie). Lewiston, NY; Lampeter, UK: The Edwin Mellen Press.
2005 Textiles of the People of the Rain /Weefsels van het volk van de Regen. Digital publication on Mixtec Textile collection. Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden (www.volkenkunde.nl – e-publications).
2003 Met Kuifje naar de Inca’s. Strijdbaar Heden, Roemrijk Verleden. Editions Moulinsart, Brussels.
2002 Conquistando lo Invencible. Fuentes históricas sobre las culturas indígenas de la región Central de Nicaragua. Leiden: Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden (Vol. 31) / CNWS Publications.
1995 La Tradición Oral de los Yokoyinikób de Tamulté. Costumbres, Creencias, Cuentos y Continuidad. Unpublished MA thesis, Leiden.
Articles and Bookchapters
2014 ‘Conquistando lo Invencible. Resistencia y Conquista en Nicaragua Central’. In Memoria del Primer Congreso Internacional del Área Cultural Gran Ulúa. Matagalpa. Fundación Ulúa. Matagalpa, Managua.
2013 ‘Ethnographic Heterotopia’. In Proceedings of the International Colloquium Do Ethnographic Museums Need Ethnography. Rome: Pigorini Museum, April 17-19, 2012
2013 ‘Authenticity and Curatorial Practice’. In Creating Authenticity. Authentication Processes in Ethnographic Museum, edited by A. Geurds and L. Van Broekhoven. Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. Leiden: Sidestone Press
2012 ‘El complejo Mixteca-Puebla en Mesoamérica. Estudios recientes y perspectiva actual (1994-2012)’ (with Alex Geurds) Mi Museo y Vos 6: 4-9.
2012 ‘Indigenous religious traditions in Central Nicaragua: Ethnohistorical documentation for an unknown archaeological record (with Alex Geurds)’. World Archaeology. The Faculty of Archaeology at 50, edited by C.C. Bakels, pp. 31-51. University of Leiden, Leiden.
2011 ‘Modernity? It’s the economy stupid! Business as a catalyst for encounters, contact and production’ (with Saskia Konniger, Laura Van Broekhoven and Wonu Veys). Fetish Modernity, edited by Anne-Marie Bouttiaux, pp. 27-41. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Brussels.
2011 ‘Chontales en su sentido étnico’ (with Alex Geurds). Mi Museo y Vos 5:8- 13.
2010 ‘The Similarity Trap: Engineering the Pan-Caribbean. A view from the Isthmo- Colombian area’ (with Alex Geurds). Journal for Caribbean Archaeology. Special Issue #3: 52-75.
2010 ‘Markets Mirrors of a Mixtec World: Si no hay carro, no hay negocio’. In Janet Long and Amalia Antonelli [Eds] Caminos y Mercados de México. CONACULTA/INAH, México.
2010 ‘Introduction’. In The Maya and Their Neighbours. Internal and External Contacts Through Time. Laura Van Broekhoven, Rogelio Valencia Rivera, Benjamin Vis and Frauke Sachse (Eds). Proceedings of the 10th European Maya Conference, Dec 9-10, 2005. Mark Schwaben: Verlag Anton Saurwein.
2010 ‘Introduction’. (with Buijs, Cunera) In Sharing Knowledge and Cultural Heritage. Buijs, Cunera; Laura Van Broekhoven and Pieter Hovens. Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
2010 ‘Yesterday’s Knowledge, Tomorrow’s Future’. In Sharing Knowledge and Cultural Heritage. Buijs, Cunera; Laura Van Broekhoven and Pieter Hovens. Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
2009 ‘Bridging the Generation Gap. Creation (hi)stories and the Visual arts in Tamulté de las Sabanas, Mexico’. In Minneke Schipper en Daniela Merola [Eds] Creation Myths and the Visual Arts: An Ongoing Dialogue between Word and Image. Boston: Religion and the Arts.
2009 La historia y el patrimonio en el departamento de Chontales. Resultados de la primera temporada del Proyecto Arqueológico Chontales (with Alex Geurds and Jorge Zambrana). Mi Museo y Vos 3(8): 4-7.
2009 ‘Sally Price, Paris Primitive; Jacques Chirac’s museum on Quai Branly’. Book Review In Oso: Tijdschrift voor Surinamistiek en het Caraïbisch gebied: Suriname Tussen mythe en Werkelijkheid. Jaargang 28. Pp. 156-159.
2009 ‘Continuidad y Transformación en el Comercio de Textiles Ñuudzaui’ (with Estefania Pampin). In XV Congreso Internacional de Ahila 1808-2008. Crisis y Problemas en el Mundo Atlántico. Asociación de Historiadores Latinoamericanistas Europeos (AHILA). ISBN/EAN 978-90-72356-03-1 (CD publication).
2008 ‘Introduction’. In: Jansen, M.E.R.G.N. & Broekhoven, L.N.K., van (Eds.), Mixtec Writing and Society. Escritura de Ñuu Dzaui, pp. 1-15. Amsterdam: KNAW Press.
2006 ‘Introduction’. In: Van Broekhoven, (Ed.), The Social and Linguistic Heritage of Native Peoples in the Americas: The Struggle to Maintain Cultural Particularity (hors serie), pp. 1-25. Lewiston, NY; Lampeter, UK: The Edwin Mellen Press.
2006 ‘Origin as Heritage: Community Archaeology in Apoala, Mexico’ (with Alex Geurds). The Social and Linguistic Heritage of Native Peoples in the Americas: The Struggle to Maintain Cultural Particularity, edited by L. Van Broekhoven and M. Jansen, pp. 141-179. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston.
2004 Bewaarders van een wankel evenwicht. Het kwaad bij de prekoloniale culturen van Midden-Amerika’. In All about evil, edited by P. Faber et al., pp. 14- 22. KIT Publishers, Amsterdam.
2003 Introduction. In Met Kuifje naar de Inca’s. Strijdbaar Heden Roemrijk Verleden. Brussel: Lannoo / Editions Moulinsart. Pp. 2-9
2003 Conquerors or Treasure Hunters? The Spaniards in Peru. SRC Cultuurvakanties, sept. 2003: 90-91.
1999 Catálogo del Museo Arqueológico Gregorio Aguilar Barea, Juigalpa
Chontales. Instituto Nicaragüense de Cultura, Managua. 1999 Guía Educativa para Maestros. Museo Arqueológico Gregorio Aguilar Barea, Juigalpa Chontales. Instituto Nicaragüense de Cultura, Managua.
1999 Museo Arqueológico Gregorio Aguilar Barea, Juigalpa Chontales. Guia Educativa, Tercer y Quarto y Quinto Grado de Primaria. Instituto Nicaragüense de Cultura, Managua.
1998 The Nature of Intra- and interregional contacts of Gran Nicoya and its periphery between AD 800 and 1200. In CNWS Newsletter 18, Leiden: CNWS.
1997 Two Chontal stories of Tamulté de las Sabanas. In Umut Maya VI , California.
Papers and Public Lectures (Selection)
2015 Ethnographic Museums and Indigenous Peoples Case Studies from the the NMWC/NME. Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam. March 2015.
2014 ‘Decolonization, co-creation. Impact @ the Museum’ . Cultural Heritage: Recallibrating Relationships. RICHES 1st International Conference Pisa. December 2014.
2014 ‘Ethnographic Returns. Case Studies in Repatriation and Restitution’. Paper presented at La restitution des collections ethnographiques et non- européennes. ULB/Faro, Brussels. November 2014.
2014 ‘Advocacy: making the case for museums of ethnography and world cultures’ EEMDG Cambridge. September 2014.
2014 Museologia Colaborativa no Volkenkunde Museum (Leiden). Museu Nacional/ UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. March 2014.
2014 ‘Conquistando lo Invencible: Resistencia y Conquista en la Nicaragua Central’, Primer Congreso Internacional del Area Cultural Gran Ulúa- Matagalpa, Matagalpa, Nicaragua. March 2014.
2013 ‘MEG Engaging Curators Series. The ethics and practicalities of working with and responding to communities: In conversation with Laura Van Broekhoven: Workshop 2: How can museums proactively, productively and co-productively work with communities in their local area and beyond?’ (http://www.museumethnographersgroup.org.uk/en/projects/329-engaging- curators.html) June 2013
2013 ‘Compartilhando Coleções e Conectando Histórias’: exibindo A Festa do Cauim do Povo Ka’apor. Paper presented at the NIAS conference Tropical Lowland Indigenous Heritage in European Collections. Laura van Broekhoven (NME, Leiden) and Mariana Françozo (Leiden University). 1-2 October, 2013
2013 ‘Sharing Curatorial Authority at the National Museum of Ethnology: Tropical Lowlands Projects’. Paper presentation at the VIII SALSA Conference -Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America. Nashville, TN, USA, March 2013.
2012 ‘Museum Collections and Indigenous Identities in the Postcolonial Era’. Paper presentation at the symposium Culturas de Memoria. Construccion, Proteccion y Conservaccion de Patrimonio entre las tres Americas y Europa. Museum der Kulturen, Basel, September 2012.
2012 ‘Developing an inclusive museum praxis: stakeholder communities and the National Museum of Ethnology’. Paper presentation at the Anthropology in the World Conference - Royal Anthropological Institute, British Museum., London, June 2012.
2010 Voorzitter werkgroep Van Etruskisch Harnas tot Spaanse Prent [met Steph Scholten] op ICOM Conferentie: Omstreden Erfgoed: Museumethiek in de Praktijk.
2010 Museum Futures and the Ethnological Museum: Seoul, South Korea 2010 Yesterday’s Knowledge, Tomorrow’s Future: Learning from the Elders. Community consultations of the Suriname project at the National Museum of Ethnology, at the 5th SüdamerikanistInnen – Treffen Tagung Marburg,
Germany. 2010 Chair Taller Etnología Mexicana en Europa (Encuentro de Mexicanistas, Antwerp, Belgium)
2010 Lectures on Maya 2012 (Calendrics, Writing, 2012-hype, Making of) at Utrecht (onkruidbeurs); Groningen (Studium Generale); Leiden (HOVO); Breda (Vereniging voor Volkenkunde); Delft (Ethnografische Vereniging Delft).
2009 AVRO Cast en Crew: Nothing is Really Real unless it happens on Television. Maya 2012 achtergronden. Paper Presentatie AVRO Cast & Crew: Het jaar Nul.
2009 Object Categories & The modern praxis. From First Encounters to Modernities. International Meeting Organisation [with Pieter ter Keurs]
2009 ‘The RIME Web Site; Scope, Boundaries and the Road Ahead at RIME Expertmeeting on Collecting the Postcolony [with Jos Taekema].
2009 RIME Expertmeeting Collecting the Postcolony. ‘Introduction’ [with Wayne Modest, Horniman Museum London] and ‘Community Consultations and Collecting: Tareno and Karina Consultations.’
‘Introductie. Trio en Kari’na Community Consultations’. 2009 ‘Case Studies in repatriation at the NME, Leiden’ Repatriation Expertmeeting SVCN musea
2007 ‘The Market in the urban city form: Diachronic examples of market dynamics and urban adaptation’. Paper presented at the 7th Mesoamerican Urbanism Conference, Leiden.
2006 ‘Markets Mirrors of A Mixtec World.’ Paper presented at 52nd International Americanists Conference (ICA), 17-24 August, Sevilla. (HIST 41: Caminos y Mercados de México)
2006 ‘Applied Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta: Exploring the cultural landscape of Santiago Apoala.’ Paper Presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archaeology, San Juan, Puerto Rico. [with Alexander Geurds].
2005 ‘Mixtec Textiles’. Paper presented at KNAW conference Mixtec Writing, Amsterdam.
2005 ‘Ñudzahui kennis in kaart gebracht’. Paper presented at Seminar of the Dutch Society of Museums and Museum of the Moluccas.
2003a‘Mapping Living Carthography in Apoala.’ Paper presented at the 10th Mixtec Gateway Conference, Las Vegas.
2003b‘Methodology, trust and the Ñudzavui: Community-based archaeology in the Mixteca Alta.’ Paper presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee [with Alexander Geurds].
2002a ‘Apoala: Archaeological Activities in the Origin of the World.’ Paper presented at the 9th Mixtec Gateway Conference, Las Vegas [with Alexander Geurds].
2001-2008 Public Lectures in Juigalpa (Nicaragua), Tlaxiaco (Mexico), Oaxaca City, San Luis Potosi (Mexico), Brussels, Antwerp (Belgium), Groningen, Etten Leur, Breda (the Netherlands), Delft, Amsterdam, Gotenborg (Sweden), USA.
Curated Exhibitions
2014 A Festa do Kawi dos Ka'apor (Goeldi Museum, Belem de Para, Brazil co- curated with Ka’apor, Claudia Lopez and Mariana Francozo); 2013 The Maya Code (Linden Museum, Stuttgart); 2012 Maya 2012: Science and Myth (NME Leiden); 2010-2013: Fetish Modernity (RIME exhibit Tervuren, Madrid, Prague, Vienna, Leiden, Stockholm); 2010 Refurbishment Permanent Galleries of the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden; 2009 Maya 2012 (NME Leiden); 2008 The Penard brothers in the Spotlights (NME Leiden); 2005 Claudius Henricus de Goeje in Suriname (NME Leiden); 2003 Met Kuifje naar de Inca (NME Leiden)
Boards and Committees
KITLV Board of Directors, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, board member (2013-2016); Board Leiden Global, Leiden University, board member (2013-2016) Member of Gerbrandslecture Jury (2011-2014) Editorial Board Member, Brill Publishers Book Series on Early History and Culture in the Americas (2007-2014) Board Member, Ethical Committee, Dutch Ethnological Museums (2006-2016); Chair Acquisitions Committee, National Museum of Ethnology (2005-2009) Member, Publications Committee, National Museum of Ethnology (2008-2009) Chair Leiden Network: International network for the protection of cultural heritage against illicit trade (2007-2009) General Board and Founding Member, Wayeb: European Associations of Mayan Studies (since 1995) Board of Directors SIS, NGO Twin cities ‘The Hague-Juigalpa’ (2005-2014) Member of ICOM (International Council of Museums) AAM (American Association of Museums); SAA (Society of American Archaeology); MLI Getty
