Prestigious Fulbright Opportunity Lands UCM Professor at the Smithsonian

By Jeff Murphy, December 10, 2019

WARRENSBURG, MO – For someone who has dedicated much of her life to the study of anthropology and museum leadership and operations, participation in a prestigious Fulbright program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., was a childhood dream come true for Amber Clifford-Napoleone.

The University of Central Missouri professor of anthropology and longtime director of the McClure Archives and Museum was one of 24 people who were chosen to attend the Fulbright Transatlantic Seminar for Museum Professionals at the Smithsonian in November. The elite group that comprised this program included only 24 individuals. Twelve seminar seats were reserved for German professionals, seven for Smithsonian employees, and five seats for professionals across the United States. Clifford-Napoleone was awarded one of those seats through an application process, and was one of only five participants who represented university museums. She also was the only American participant who was both a professor and a museum director.

“The Fulbright seminar was focused on the idea of social discourse and social justice and how museums can approach that,” Clifford-Napoleone said.  “Museums have always seen themselves as a place where social discourse happens, but in the 21st century social discourse has changed a bit. It’s not just conversations anymore. The seminar was about developing some sort of best practice system for social discourse in museums worldwide, and then talking with other curators and museum directors about what precisely that meant in America."

Clifford-Napoleone said the five-day Fulbright opportunity enabled her to meet with the “top tier of museum professionals in the U.S. and Germany.”

“It was fantastic, it was fascinating and it was enlightening,” she said. “I was taking notes the entire time about what I wanted to bring home, what I wanted to change, and what we could do here. It also was nice, not just for me personally, but for the university, that our museum and our collection were recognized.”
 
Taking her seminar notes and conversations to heart, Napoleone-Clifford is looking at new opportunities to incorporate ideas gleaned from her Smithsonian experience into her work at the McClure Archives and Museum. While the facility annually includes a number of social discourse-related exhibitions, she plans to work on efforts to ensure these and other exhibits are as accessible as possible. She also hopes to implement programs such as panel discussions to provide “a little more assessment about what we do and how well we do it.”

“I have those types of assessments from other museum professionals, but I want to know more about what the public thinks about what we’re doing and what we’re not doing,” she said.

In addition to her work in the museum, Clifford-Napoleone teaches a museum science class. Learning from her Fulbright opportunity, she hopes to develop on-campus visits as well as Skype opportunities with some of the German museum curators and professionals, which she can share with her students.

Ashley McGuffey, a graduate assistant at the McClure Archives and Museum who has worked for Clifford-Napoleone since her sophomore year, said she was excited about her supervisor’s selection for the Fulbright program. McGuffey knows that she and other students will benefit from the knowledge that will now be applied to UCM.

“To work under a Fulbright scholar is absolutely something to have pride in, especially since museum directors are kind of on the rare spectrum of Fulbright scholars,” McGuffey said. She added that the connections Clifford-Napoleone made during her visit to Washington, D.C., will benefit students like her who want to work in museums. She appreciate the close working relationship she has with Clifford-Napoleone who, through her mentorship, has created an atmosphere that provides opportunity in action."

“I love working here because of the full range of jobs I can do. We’re kind of a smaller museum, so I get to wear many hats. I’ve done curation. I’ve done exhibit design. I’ve done registration, and I’ve even led educational tours,” McGuffey said. “I get so much experience from this job, and I really love and appreciate the opportunities I get from that.”                                                                                                                                    

While the Fulbright seminar was a great professional experience, Clifford-Napoleone saw the realization of a childhood dream as she roamed around the Smithsonian. She got to see its vast collections while also getting to visit parts of the museum that are rarely seen by the public.

“It’s as awe-inspiring and imposing as everyone assumes it to be,” she said about her visit to the iconic museum. “It was an incredible place.”