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Department of Anthropology

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William (Willi) Lempert

Affiliation: Anthropology
Osterweis Family Associate Professor of Anthropology

My past, current, and upcoming research projects are united by a focus on the implications of Aboriginal Australian representations for the future of their communities, with a commitment to a sustained and collaborative process. Based on years of ethnographic fieldwork with Indigenous media organizations in the Kimberley region of Northwestern Australia, my book  (2025, University of Minnesota Press) traces the dynamic process of filmmaking as a critical mode of social and political transformation.

My emerging research engages Aboriginal sign language and hearing loss, as well as outer space colonialism. I continue to be driven by the larger goal of facilitating collaborative partnerships that prioritize community-defined protocols, outcomes, and analytics, and which aim to expand how Indigenous futures are imagined by scholars, policymakers, and broader audiences.

I approach teaching and research as symbiotic, centered around a close attention to process. Just as my research highlights the social lives of films as much as their finished products, so too does my teaching emphasize the power of process in coming to understand one's self and purpose. I emphasize writing and mediamaking not only as skills to be learned and refined, but more significantly as invaluable means for conveying one’s inimitable voice for the patiently-considered benefit of others. 

Education

  • PhD, Cultural Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder
  • MA, Cultural Anthropology, University of Denver
  • BA, Interdisciplinary Studies, Miami University
(207) 725-3000

Mailing Address:
6000 College Station
Brunswick, Maine 04011