Research Visits and Teaching Support

Thank you for your interest in working with the Hearst Museum. The Museum gallery is currently closed to the public, and access for the purposes of research and teaching is limited.

Media Permissions

If you have a Media permissions request, please review the additional information on our Media Permissions page, and submit your request using the form at the bottom of that page.  For Native American audio requests, please submit your request to the California Language Archive (CLA) using the CLA request submission form.

Limited Research & Teaching Support 

Starting in November 2022, the Museum will be able to accommodate limited access to its non-NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA collections for purposes of research and teaching. At this time we can only accommodate limited requests from members of the UC Berkeley community and tribal communities; we are not able to accommodate requests from other individuals or institutions at this time due to staffing and space constraints. Please check back in summer 2023 for any updates. 

Requests will be reviewed on a periodic basis starting in October/November 2022, and scheduled as staffing and space resources permit. Depending on the number and scope of requests received, and available staff and space resources, the review committee will seek to accommodate as many requests as possible, but may need to decline, or defer some decisions to a later review date.

Visits from Tribal Communities

Native American tribes and tribal communities seeking information or access to collections under NAGPRA or CalNAGPRA should contact the UC Berkeley NAGPRA team directly—more information can be found here.

Who can submit requests?

Currently, we will only be able to consider research and teaching requests from members of the UC Berkeley community, or individuals affiliated with tribal communities from the US and Canada. 

We won’t accommodate requests from other individuals or institutions at this time due to staffing and space constraints. Please check back in summer 2024 for any updates.

Exceptions: Media Permissions and NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA requests

• For media permissions, please review the additional information, and submit your request via our Media Permissions page.
• Tribal representatives seeking information or access to collections under NAGPRA or CalNAGPRA should contact the UC Berkeley NAGPRA team directly—more information can be found here. 

How do I submit?

To submit a request for research, teaching, or tribal visits, please complete this form.

**Note: if you submitted a request previously, we ask you to please resubmit your request using the link above, to make sure that it is included in the current review process. Note that the new google form includes some new questions that were not included on the previous form.

How and when will my request be considered?

All complete requests received by the deadlines below will be reviewed by a joint committee comprised of representatives from the Hearst Museum, the VC Research Office, and the UC Berkeley NAGPRA team, and for UC Berkeley requests, representatives of the Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities Deans Offices. Requestors will be contacted within one week of the review committee meeting.

How will requests be prioritized?

UC Berkeley research and teaching requests will be considered on a periodic basis, outlined above. These criteria may evolve over time so please check back if you plan to submit a request in a future review cycle.

• Research priority will be given to time sensitive requests, for example final research necessary to complete a dissertation or meet a publication deadline. Priority will be given to those that can be handled with lesser impact on staffing and space. 
• Teaching priority will be given to requests involving a smaller number of visits and staff time to pull objects.
• Requestors are asked to be as flexible as possible in the dates of their requests.
• We are not able to support individual undergraduate student projects at this time, unless they are related to an undergraduate senior thesis. 
• All student researchers will be required to provide a letter of support from a UC Berkeley faculty member who is familiar with their research.
• The review process for UC Berkeley requests will incorporate input from the deans of Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities, to consider the balance between and among research and teaching priorities.

Non-NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA Tribal access requests will be reviewed monthly, and considered on a first come-first serve basis.

Note: Although we will work to avoid conflicts, there is a chance that scheduling may need to change at the last minute to accommodate tribal visits under NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA and UC NAGPRA Policy. We will do our best to notify affected groups with as much lead time as possible.