About this Episode

Image: Sanchita Balachandran. Photo Credit: James Rensselaer.

Sanchita Balachandran, Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum, hopes to see the field of conservation develop into more of a social process, rather than simply a technical one.

From her 2016 talk at the American Institute for Conservation’s Annual Meeting, to teaching her students how to interrogate an object in person, to her Untold Stories project, Balachandran has thought critically about the role of conservators. In this epsiode, Balachandran talks about her early formative experiences in the field of conservation and how whether or not someone’s history is worth preserving is a deeply political decision.

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Topcis Discussed:

00:00: Intro

00:14: Sanchita Balachandran

00:30: What Does a Conservator Do?

03:10: Early Formative Experiences

03:35: The Needs of Objects

05:35: Race, Diversity and Politics in Conservation: Our 21st Century Crisis

10:30: Objects vs. Data

13:03: Outro