News from MIAC/Lab

JUNE 23, 2020

The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture and the Center for New Mexico Archaeology announce a new virtual speaker series called "Innovation in Archaeology." The hour-long online lectures will begin on July 15.

The series brings together scholars who are providing alternate perspectives from which to view the past in the American Southwest. Their work is expanding our appreciation of the lives of ancestral people led in this complex and challenging environment, whether by turning a fresh gaze toward museum collections or by offering personal insights into the people behind the ancestral sites as an Indigenous archaeologist.

Below is a schedule with more information and a link to access the lectures: 

Who: Louie Garcia: “Of Warp and Weft: Fiber Arts in the Pueblo Southwest Past, Present, and Future.” When: July 15 @ 6 p.m.
About the speaker: Louie Garcia (Tiwa/Piro Pueblo) is a traditional Pueblo fiber artist. Over the years, Garcia has exhibited his work in various local museums and has talked extensively on the topic of Pueblo weaving at different venues. He is a part of the Cedar Mesa Perishables Project, a team of archaeologists and Pueblo weavers documenting prehistoric perishable collections in various museums and institutions across the United States. Their aim is to compile a database accessible to all who may be interested in learning more about the material culture of the ancient Pueblo Southwest.
Link to access: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86927318253

Who: Patrick Cruz: “A Look at Classic Period Tewa Communities in the Velarde area.”
When: July 22 @ 6 p.m.
About the speaker: Patrick Cruz (Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo) is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Anthropology with an archaeology focus at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His research interests have focused on Southwest archaeology and more specifically the PIII Great Pueblo Migration (GPM) out of the Four Corners, the post GPM period in the Northern Rio Grande, along with investigating identity, Tewa language, village formation, Indigenous archaeology, and phenomenology. He has 20 years of experience working in both the archaeology and museum fields at Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico History Museum, and the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.
Link to access: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88545265547

Who: Dr. Lewis Borck: “Breaking Down Cardboard Boxes: How Archaeology Can Erase Histories and How It Can Reveal Them.”
When: July 29 @ 6 p.m.
About the speaker: Dr. Lewis Borck studies the material histories of the past peoples in the American Southwest and the Caribbean. He is particularly interested in how social movements and contentious politics shaped religion and politics through time as well as how modern politics and worldviews recreate the histories and ideas of the “West” in the Indigenous past. For this talk, Dr. Borck will explore how archaeologists and historians create history, how that can erase the history of commoners, particularly of their politics and revolutions. He will use 15 years of research in the Gallina region of New Mexico, including a current field school, as a case study to contextualize many of these ideas.
Link to access: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84209568860

This series is generously funded by the Continuous Pathways Foundation.

About the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture
The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, under the leadership of the Board of Regents for the Museum of New Mexico. Programs and exhibits are generously supported by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and our donors. The mission of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology is to serve as a center of stewardship, knowledge, and understanding of the artistic, cultural, and intellectual achievements of the diverse peoples of the Native Southwest.  

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