Past Events
Interested in Cotsen events? Sign up for our mailing list.Willeke Wendrich, MODERATOR
Director, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology & Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California Los Angeles
Angela McArdle
Senior Historic Preservation Specialist, Department of Veterans Affairs
Albert Gonzalez
Associate Professor of Anthropology & Director of the C.E. Smith Museum of Anthropology, California State University, East Bay
Kristina Douglass
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Penn State University
Stephen Acabado
Associate Professor of Anthropology & Director, UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Sarah Herr
President, Desert Archaeology Inc.
Julie Stein
Executive Director of the Burke Museum & Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington
Contact
Phone
A book release seminar sponsored by STRI, Panama and the Panamanian ministry of culture. This new book, written in Spanish, presents recent archaeological research in Panama. The book is the first tome devoted to Panamanian archaeology published in Spanish in Panama.
Contact Tom Wake
Phone
Dr. Justin Dunnavant, Assistant Professor, UCLA Department of Anthropology
Darartu Mulugeta, Undergraduate, UCLA
As increasing calls for science communication encourage archaeologists to convey their research to diverse public audiences, we found it necessary to explore how such research was disseminated in the past. Delving into the archives of Ebony Magazine and the Johnson Publishing Company, we examine the manner in which archaeological research was communicated in the Black popular press from the 1950s into the present. The articles, authors, and subjects provide unique insight into the topics of interest to Black America and speak to the power of the Black press at educating and exciting the public about ground-breaking archaeological research. Engaging Ebony Magazine as a historical archive, we uncover little-known figures and moments in the history of African and African diaspora archaeology and offer suggestions for future directions in science communication research.
Dr. Justin Dunnavant
Dr. Justin Dunnavant is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. His current research in the US Virgin Islands investigates the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. In addition to his archaeological research, Justin is co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists and an AAUS Scientific SCUBA Diver. In 2021, he was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and inducted into The Explorers Club as one of “Fifty People Changing the World that You Need to Know About.” He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. His research has been featured on Netflix's "Explained," Hulu's "Your Attention Please" and in print in American Archaeology and Science Magazine.
Darartu Mulugeta
Darartu Mulugeta is a Political Science and Psychology student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is specializing in methods and computing with the primary goal of studying African communities and history. She is currently part of the African Diaspora Archaeology Lab as a Bunche Research Fellow. Outside of school, she volunteers at the Oromo Legacy Leadership and Advocacy Association as an Oromo language teaching assistant.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
The UCLA Graduate Student Association of Archaeology, an affiliate of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, invites you to attend our 9th UCLA Graduate Archaeology Research Conference. This two day virtual event will take place February 4th (4-5pm PST), and February 5th (9am-4pm PST) 2022.
Titled “ReVisioning the Future of Archaeology,” we ask: who is archaeology for, and what tools will we use to (re)design its future? The keynote speaker and graduate presenters will explore topics that consider various questions about archaeology’s role in the present. Topics that bring new ideas, new resources, and new approaches together into an interdisciplinary dialogue.
“ReVisioning the Future of Archaeology” seeks to engage with the greater community, and take into consideration artistic visions, collective and community memory, and diverse points of view in order to produce more inclusive practices and an equitable discipline.
On the first day, Friday February 4, we will have our keynote speaker, Dr. Uzma Rizvi speak. On Saturday, we will hear from our graduate student presenters., who will present for 20 minutes each, followed by a Q&A and discussion.
View the conference website here.
Schedule of Events
Friday, February 4th: 4-5pm PST
Keynote address, "The Future Was ___________: A time outside this time" by Dr. Uzma Z. Rizvi, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY; and Visiting Faculty in the Department of Archaeology, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Pakistan
With nearly two decades of work on decolonizing methodologies, intersectional and feminist strategies, and transdisciplinary approaches, Rizvi's work has intentionally pushed disciplinary limits, and demanded ethical decolonial praxis at all levels of engagement, from teaching to research.
Saturday, February 5th: 9am-4pm PST
9:00am -10:45am, Session 1: "Multivocal Perspectives on Heritage and Belonging"
11:00am -12:45pm Session 2: "Technological Futures in Archaeology"
2:00-3:45 pm Session 3: "Performing Archaeology: Re-Engaging with Materials and Their Stories"
Register for the conference here.
Contact Taylor Carr-Howard
Email tcarrhoward@g.ucla.edu
Phone
Speaker: Sarah Sutton
Date: February 4, 2022. 11:00am
Title: Cultural Heritage and Climate Change: D(d)iplomacy for Neighbors and Nations
Cultural heritage has been undervalued as a community and national resource in addressing climate change. Historic landscapes are critical waterline buffers and biodiversity habitats. Structures are refuges and examples of resilient construction. Human-made objects and art hold our identities and the collective knowledge we depend upon for well-being. And our traditions have lessons for sustainability and resilience. These are valuable resources for neighbor-to-neighbor and nation-to-nation relationships that underlay the cooperative action necessary for creating a world where everyone and everything may some day thrive.
Presenter Sarah Sutton will share how those who care about cultural heritage have been taking important steps to protect it and to embed it in climate change response as a core component, not an add on. Historic structures and retrofitted modern buildings are increasingly efficient, low-carbon solutions that double as safe spaces for community resilience planning in stable times, and refuges in disturbed times – if left standing. The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative is a coalition protecting astonishing amounts of land as habitat and a buffer against riverine flooding. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will now include cultural heritage in its reports to the UN. And when President Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement, he named cultural institutions as valuable partners in tackling climate change. Across the US and now as part of United Nations-level discussions, cultural heritage is critical to domestic and national practices and agreements that create shared solutions.
Bio:
Sarah Sutton is CEO of Environment & Culture Partners (ECP), a non-profit accelerating cultural institutions’ leadership in climate action. ECP manages the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, a grant program supporting museums’ energy efficiency and clean energy projects, and an IMLS National Leadership Grant creating energy efficiency tools for museums. Sutton is the Cultural Sector Lead for America is All In supporting the Paris Agreement. She is co-author of The Green Museum and author of Environmental Sustainability at Historic Sites & Museums.
Sutton is a Steering Committee member and Climate Change co-chair, for Held in Trust, a special program of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Institute for Conservation that is shaping the future of the preventive conservation profession. Sutton is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Climate Change Task Force, and was a selected participant in the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Climate Change with the IPCC, UNESCO, and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
Please submit your questions in advance of the webinar via email to:
hnadworny@support.ucla.edu by Wednesday, February 2 at 12:00 p.m.
Contact
Email hnadworny@support.ucla.edu
Phone
Miguel Guzmán Juárez
Department of Architecture and Urbanism, Universidad Ricardo de Palma
Registration Link: http://tinyurl.com/AndArchTalkMG
Note: This talk will be delivered in Spanish.
Sponsors: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and UCLA Latin American Institute
Contact Rachel Schloss & Syon Vasquez
Email rachelschloss@g.ucla.edu & syon@g.ucla.edu
Phone
Leo Garofalo
Department of History, Connecticut College
A discussion of how to study the social history of ethnic groups viewed as marginal in the colonial Andean cities of the 16th and 17th centuries. Studies cases of: indigenous migrants to cities like Lima and Cuzco, including those from Central America and Chile; African and African descendants, including Afro-Iberians, in both cities and present in rural areas production; and people arriving to Peru from in early trans-Pacific diaspora. These constitute three challenging cases for historical study, requiring extra work to detect their traces in the archives and other period sources.
Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/AWGTalk
Contact Alba Menéndez Pereda & Elyse Brusher
Email albamenendez@ucla.edu & ebrusher@ucla.edu
Phone
Wafa Ghnaim
Embroidery in the Holy Land has existed for centuries, showcased in the decorated garments created and
worn by Palestinian women for generations, as well as documented by the many international visitors who travelled to Palestine for pilgrimage or tourism. By the mid-nineteenth century, each region of historic Palestine had developed their own distinct styles, through variation of fabric, thread color, motif, and ensemble. Some cities, such as Bethlehem, Ramallah, Yaffa and Gaza, became famous for their unique ensembles, however there are dozens of villager and bedouin styles that exist across historic Palestine. Each style and regional variation speak a language of their own, transformed by the political, economic and social events that occurred at the turn of the century and continue to be cherished by Palestinians today.
Wafa Ghnaim is a Palestinian-American artist, researcher, writer, educator, and businesswoman who began learning Palestinian embroidery from her mother, award-winning artist Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, when she was two years old. Her first book, “Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora” (2018), documents the traditional patterns passed to her by her mother. Wafa has since become a leading educator in the field as the first-ever Palestinian embroidery instructor at the Smithsonian Museum, and an artist-in-residence at the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington, D.C. In addition to her extensive scholarship, Wafa continues her mother’s educational legacy through Tatreez & Tea, a global arts education initiative she began in 2016. Wafa has been featured in major media outlets, most recently in Vogue Magazine, naming her and her mother “the world’s leading guardians of tatreez”. Wafa currently resides in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the Tatreez & Tea project, go to www.tatreezandtea.com or follow on Instagram @tatreezandtea.
Photograph/Headshot Credit: Carlos Khalil Guzman, 2020
Contact Céline Wachsmuth
Email wachsmuthc@g.ucla.edu
Phone
Over Zoom
Mentor-led workshop on a particular method (Carly Pope on ceramic analysis)
Contact Carly Pope
Email 3m2pope@ucla.edu
Phone
Sven Haakanson
Ph.D., Curator, Burke Museum
Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Washington
Over the past three decades, in collaboration with my community from Kodiak, Alaska, I have researched
museum collections from around the world to learn about and return the embodied knowledge of our cultural history. From masks, clothing, baskets to boats we have systematically taken knowledge that was taken out and brought it back to our communities to use once again. The angyaaq (open boat) from our region was set aside in the 1800’s after contact with Europeans, but thanks to collections we were able to learn about this vessel and reverse engineer the models in order to build a full size angyaaq at the Akhiok Kids Camp in 2016.
Sven Haakanson is Sugpiaq from Old Harbor, Alaska. He is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (2007), the Museums Alaska Award for Excellence (2008), the ATALM Guardians of Culture and Lifeways Leadership Award (2012), and his work on the Angyaaq led it to be inducted into the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame (2020). He joined the University of Washington in 2013. He engages communities in cultural revitalization using material reconstruction as a form of scholarship and teaching. His projects have included the reconstruction of full-sized angyaaq boats from archaeological models, as well as halibut hooks, masks, paddles, and traditional processing of bear gut into waterproof material for clothing. He has and continues to collaborate with the community of Akhiok at their Akhiok Kids camp since 2000.
Contact Céline Wachsmuth
Email wachsmuthc@g.ucla.edu
Phone
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