William Lempert

William Lempert is the Osterweis Family Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. His work bridges anthropology, Indigenous studies, and visual media, with a focus on collaborative research that centers community-defined protocols and outcomes. Lempert maintains a strong commitment to teaching as a symbiotic process with his research, emphasizing the importance of writing and media production as means of self-expression and social engagement.

Lempert's educational background includes:

• PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder
• MA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Denver
• BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Miami University

Lempert's research centers on the implications of Aboriginal Australian representations for community futures, with particular emphasis on collaborative filmmaking as a mode of social and political transformation. His work spans visual anthropology, linguistic anthropology, medical anthropology, and space studies, with recurring themes of Indigenous futurism, decolonization, and the social lives of media. He has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork with Indigenous media organizations in the Kimberley region of Northwestern Australia, focusing on how Aboriginal communities use media to imagine and create their futures.

His publications reveal a consistent trajectory of examining colonial legacies through multiple lenses—from Aboriginal cinema and sign language to outer space exploration. A significant thread throughout his work is the examination of how Indigenous knowledge systems challenge Western frameworks, particularly in relation to time, space, and futurity. His recent work has increasingly focused on the parallels between historical colonial processes and contemporary space exploration, arguing for the necessity of Indigenous perspectives in shaping ethical approaches to potential extraterrestrial contact.

Lempert's scholarly contributions have been recognized through research support from prestigious organizations:

• Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
• Fulbright IIE US Scholar Program
• Lois Roth Endowment
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• American Council of Learned Societies

In addition to his research, Lempert has extensive teaching experience across various institutional contexts, having taught 42 courses as instructor of record. His teaching philosophy centers on process rather than product, emphasizing writing and media production as means of self-discovery and communication. He has served on 3 honors thesis committees and advised 1 honors thesis, in addition to supervising 11 summer research projects. His teaching has been recognized through the Center for Learning and Teaching Baldwin Fellowship at Bowdoin College and a nomination for the Graduate Instructor Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Colorado.

Lempert is actively involved in collaborative media production with Indigenous communities, particularly through film projects that document Kukatja sign language and explore Aboriginal Australian perspectives on space and futurity. He co-founded the Pejepscot Portage Mapping Project, which works to reimagine Indigenous connections to the Brunswick area. His media collaborations include multiple award-winning film productions that have been screened at international film festivals including Margaret Mead, imagineNATIVE, and Sydney.