Sept 28 Colloquium

Speaker: Eric Dorfman, Director of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History and President of the International Council of Museums Committee for Museums and Collections of Natural History

Humanities Center Colloquium Events typically involve conversations around a pre-distributed piece of writing. You can download the piece of writing for this event here.

Dr. Eric Dorfman is Director of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History and President of the International Council of Museums Committee for Museums and Collections of Natural History (ICOM NATHIST). Dorfman did a masters in marine ecology in Monterey California and a doctorate on waterbirds in eastern Australia. He undertook postdoctoral research on waterbirds in both Australia and South Africa and his current research interests focus primarily on museology and interactions between humans and the natural world. Dorfman is active in the natural history museum sector internationally, authoring the ICOM Code of Ethics for Natural History Museums, as well as chairing the ICOM NATHIST Wildlife Trafficking Working Group and a Board Member of ICOM USA. He is an author of popular books on natural history, scholarly papers on museum operations, public programming, and the ecology of wetland birds. His most recent book is as editor of Intangible Natural Heritage (Routledge 2012), and he is currently editing The Future of Natural History Museums, also for Routledge. Prior to his current position, he was Director of Whanganui Regional Museum in New Zealand and lectured in the Museums and Heritage Studies Department of Victoria University of Wellington. 

Dr. Eric Dorfman is Director of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History and President of the International Council of Museums Committee for Museums and Collections of Natural History (ICOM NATHIST).