Welcome Kimberly Christen!

Savage Minds is pleased to announce our new guest blogger: Kimberly Christen.

Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Comparative Ethnic Studies Department at Washington State University. Kim received her Ph.D. from the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2004. Her research focuses on contemporary indigenous alliances with governments, industries (such as mining and tourism) and technologies as part of the articulation of local self-determination politics. Specifically, she has worked with Warumungu people in Tennant Creek, a remote town in the Northern Territory of Australia since 1995. Recent projects include: a collaboratively produced community history text and DVD, website and community digital archive.

Many SM readers already know Kim from her blog Long Road, where she writes about Aboriginal issues, digital media, intellectual property and cultural heritage issues and other interesting tidbits.

This week on Savage Minds she will blogging about the Australian government’s “intervention” into Aboriginal communities in the wake of the Little Children are Sacred Report and about the possibilities of “virtual repatriation” of cultural objects to indigenous communities through the use of digital archives.

P. Kerim Friedman is an assistant professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa University, in Taiwan, where he teaches linguistic and visual anthropology. He is co-director of the film Please Don't Beat Me, Sir!, winner of the 2011 Jean Rouch Award from the Society of Visual Anthropology. Follow Kerim on Twitter.