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Dr. Joe Edward Watkins
Dr. Watkins has been a proponent of cooperation with and integration of indigenous peoples into the field of archaeology. He has sought to bring attention to the issue of repatriation in the field of archaeology. He has expressed that many of the common methods of archaeology are invasive. Instead, he approaches archaeology from a cultural, personal perspective rather than from a bone digging perspective. -
Dr. Veronica Perez Rodriguez
She works in Mesoamerica in the highland region of the Mixteca Alta. Rodriguez has integrated archaeological methods with ethnography, ethnohistory, and geomorphological studies to look at the development of agricultural landscapes in urban centers. She has also investigated the environmental impact of urbanism found in Mixtec Alta. The first to systematically record (video) how to make traditional pottery with local clay - working with communities during her fieldwork. -
Dr. Jason Nez
Began working in 2003 as an interpreter at Navajo National Monument in Arizona. He then started his research in the Grand Canyon Region with a team of anthropologists focusing on bringing a modern native perspective to archaeological sites and actions in the regions. He is particularly well known for the work he has done speaking out to protect the region where Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers meet (received the 2020 Pioneer Award from The Grand Canyon Historical Society for these efforts). -
Dr. Blair Rose Zaid
Her Ph.D. dissertation investigated the “proto-African Diaspora of Early Iron Age Central Africa from roughly 3,000 years ago”. Currently researching ‘Freedom Seekers’ in the Midwest. She compares materials from archaeological sites in Gordon Hall Michigan to the “leisure” practices in Idlewild Michigan. Through her explorations, she has been able to educate and empower Africa American communities living in the midwest by explaining her findings on their ancestors' struggle for freedom. -
Dr. Jason De Leon
Jason De Leon is a Mexican-Filipino who received his Ph.D. in anthropology from PennState University in 2008. He worked in Mexico where he looked at the economy and technology of Olmen obsidian. His current work centers around how undocumented immigration is a forensic site of materiality and also violence. He catalogs the objects left by Mexican migrants crossing the border into the United States and to locate the human and nonhuman actors and effects of undocumented immigration. -
Dr. Davina Two Bears
Dr. Bears is a Diné (Navajo) archaeologist who received her PhD in anthropology from Indiana University - Bloomington. Her most well-known work is the documentation of the history of the Old Leupp Boarding School and the stories of Diné survival during the time that it was open, as it is an important historical site that was mostly missing from the literature. Beyond this, she has also worked to promote music made by the indigenous peoples of the Americas, both contemporary and traditional.
