Anna Riley
Research Interests: Artisanal practice and embodied knowledge; conservation studies and heritage sciences; history of technology and STS; glassmaking; anthropology of craft, tourism, and development; globalization and commodities; histories of expeditions and collecting.
Anna studies the history and anthropology of art and science. Through archival and collections-based research, she observes the production and mediation of cultural objects as they circulate as tourist souvenirs, scientific specimens, museum artifacts, and collectable crafts. By following objects themselves from market to museum to laboratory, she traces connections between scientists, artisans, and gallerists. She is interested in materials and forms of knowledge perceived as vulnerable and in need of preservation and witness.
Anna comes from an interdisciplinary arts background and worked professionally as a glassmaker and teacher.
Presentations:
2026 “Transparent Thresholds,” Symposium Co-Organizer with artist Jocelyne Prince, Museum of American Glass, WheatonArts, Millville, New Jersey.
2026 “Salvage, Science, and Shopping for Global Heritage,” Rhode Island School of Design Glass Department, Providence, Rhode Island.
2026 “Quartz Pebbles and Plant Ash: Cinematic Salvage in Herat,” Materiality and the Making of Art, Rice University, Houston, Texas.
2025 “Life of Glass: Following Pathways of Connection, Rupture, and Alteration,” Panelist with Dr. Erin O’Connor and Nadania Idriss, Glass Art Society Conference, Arlington, Texas.
2024 “Crafting the Story of the Glassmakers of Herat,” History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
2024 “Crafting the Story of the Glassmakers of Herat,” Corning Museum of Glass 61st Annual Seminar on Glass, online.
2023 “Crafting Stories of Value: Commodity Paths for Herati Glass,” Bard Graduate Center Qualifying Paper Symposium, New York, New York.
2022 “Glass in the Ancient Technology Program Expeditions,” Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology Symposium, National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.
Previous Degrees:
M.A., Bard Graduate Center
M.F.A., University of California, Berkeley:
B.F.A., Rhode Island School of Design