W. Warner Wood

Education

• PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Teaching Schedule

Courses Taught

• ANTH 102 - Introduction to Anthropology- Culture and Society
• ANTH 354 - Art, Aesthetics, and Culture
• ANTH 450 - The Anthropology of Tourism
• ANTH 620 - Museum Fundamentals
• ANTH 621 - Internship in Museum Studies
• ANTH 720 - History and Theory of Museums
• ANTH 721 - Administration and Organization of Museums
• ANTH 723 - Museum Curation
• ANTH 920 - Advanced Seminar in Museological Problems

Research Interests

My research is focused on the cultural politics of heritage in global context. To date my work has centered mostly on ecotourism and cultural tourism sites in Oaxaca, Mexico and the United States, although I am also interested in museums as important sites for the production of meaning. My interest is in the differing interpretations of material culture items and the environment that are constructed/contested by various stakeholders. I focus on the material culture of the people who visit, live, and work in such localities in order to better understand the transnational articulations in which they are embedded.

My first book, Made in Mexico: Zapotec Weavers and the Global Ethnic Art Market (Indiana U. Press, 2008) is an ethnographic account that follows weavers, designs, wool, and finished textiles primarily between Oaxaca, Mexico and the American Southwest. Following weavers and textiles between Oaxaca and the Southwest required a multi-sited approach and enabled me to understand how the lives and careers of Zapotec weavers (and their textiles) are produced and negotiated through the practices of a host of actors—a transnational “community of practice.” I’m currently extending this research into Northern India where similar textiles are now being produced for markets in the American Southwest.

My research efforts are now also focused on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico and on community museum development at an ecotourism site. In this project I am employing a participatory action research methodology to work together with a community coop focused on mangrove conservation. I am in the early stages of this project and it will require me (and my students) to travel to Oaxaca for the next several years and will culminate in the opening of a museum and traveling exhibit as well as the publication of an exhibition catalog chronicling the lives and work of the members of the cooperative.

Related Activities

Museum Consulting Services and Projects

2025-26  Interim Executive Director
Served in a leadership role to develop staff structure/positions, internal policies/procedures, business and fundraising plans, and institutional planning strategy for the Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI to transition from County support to independence. (Support: 4-month contract for approximately $13,500)

2024-25  Retreat Organizer and Facilitator
Developed and lead a board strategic planning retreat (May 22-23, 2025) with the assistance of a student intern for the Ephraim Historical Foundation and Museum, Ephraim, WI. (Support: contract including travel/accommodations and expenses, approximately $1,500)

2024-25  Exhibition Developer
Developed and lead a small team in the planning and fabrication of the UWM Libraries exhibition that opened on May 21, 2025: Sheldon H. Lubar: A Character Driven Life” (Support: contract supporting two student project employees and subcontractors for graphics installation and fabrication of exhibition furniture, approximately $35,000)

2013-24  Community Eco-museum Consultant
Developed and lead a small community/research team (Richard Freeman, Dan Danzig, and three students) in the planning of a small eco-museum in La Ventanilla, Oaxaca, Mexico as well as a traveling photographic auto-documentary exhibition “Fotos y Voces de la Ventanilla” over the course of several short research trips during a 10-year period, (Support: a variety of grants, fellowships, and other awards listed above, totaling approximately $60,000)

2016-17  Collections Digitization and Access Grant Consultant
Consulted on a Beloit College Logan Museum of Anthropology collections access and digitization grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities including writing an annotated bibliography and helping to lead a study aboard course to Oaxaca, Mexico (Support: NEH Grant, PI Nicolette Meister, approximately $4,500)

Selected Exhibits

HT94@MKE: Terrains of Hope, September 2021– February 2022. Emil Mathis Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Co-curated with David Pacifico and Leigh Mahlik (in support of 5 community/campus curators).

Nuestra Casa, the Exhibition, January–December 2012. Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX. Co-curated with Lucia Dura, Eva Moya, Guillermina Núñez-Mchiri, Damien Schumann, and Arvind Singhal.

A River Interrupted: Making the Case for Changing Our Management of the Rio Grande, May–December 2011. Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX. Co-curated with Scott Culter, Judith Rios Aranas, John Sproul, and Elizabeth Walsh.

Harnessing the Wind’s Power, Tracking the Wild Horse Wind Facility Story, April 2008-Current. Puget Sound Energy Wild Horse Wind Facility Visitor Center, Ellensburg, WA. Co-curated with Kathleen Barlow, Morris Eubelacker, Andy Granitto, James Huckabay, Karl Lilquist, Patrick McCutcheon, Naomi Jeffery Petersen, and Kathryn Sample

Selected Publications