Alejandro Gonzalez Villarruel

Biography

Alejandro is the Deputy Director of the National Museum of Anthropology and National Institute of Anthropology and History. Alejandro’s professional interests are within the field of political anthropology and material culture of indigenous groups from Mexico. He is particularly interested in exploring how indigenous people utilize material culture to express their cultural identities and how they articulate with the global economies. He aims to engage these groups in museums by encouraging their active participation in museum exhibitions. Alejandro is also interested in finding effective ways in which to represent the multi-cultural identity of his country through exhibitions, articulating these with living populations and explore emic perspectives. He is currently in charge of a research project on indigenous communities and female textile production, and a second project which focuses on the ethnography of Yumano indigenous groups from Northern Mexico.

At the British Museum
During his time on the International Training Programme in 2012, Alejandro was based in the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas and his partner placement was spent at National Museum Wales.

Alejandro’s exhibition project proposal was entitled Bad News, Good Gods.