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Kelly Jenks

Kelly Jenks
Associate Professor
Regular Faculty

Contact Info
kljenks@nmsu.edu
Kent Hall 207 (museum); Breland Hall 305 (department)

View CV
Expertise: Cultural Resource Management, Historical Archaeology, Archaeology, Anthropology

Biography

I specialize in historical archaeology and I'm most interested in the relationship between everyday objects and identity in multicultural settings. Most of my research is in the American Southwest at sites dating between AD 1550 and 1950. 

Current Research

My primary interest is in the material construction and evolution of social identities within contact zones. Much of my recent work has focused on group identities that formed during the Spanish colonial, Mexican, and early American periods in the Southwest.

One major focus of my research has been on the construction and expression of group identities within multiethnic colonial communities. I conducted fieldwork within the Spanish land grant community of San Miguel del Vado, New Mexico, first established in 1794 in the Upper Pecos River Valley on the eastern frontier of the New Mexico colony. My analysis of the use of space, architecture, and materials at this site focuses on the ways that residents used shared practices and communal spaces to downplay ethnic differences and express a civic identity (vecindad) that distinguished them from their eastern neighbors and trade partners. I also explored archaeological evidence of Hispanic expansion and settlement in New Mexico in both earlier and later periods: at Los Ojitos, a homestead-era village in the Middle Pecos Valley occupied ca. 1870-1950, and along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the road connecting New Mexico to Mexico from 1598 through the 1880s. Oral history is an important component of this research, and I've been involved with several oral history projects in this region. One of these, the New Mexico Rural Heritage Oral History Project, is the source of a short podcast series hosted on the KRWG website. In my current project, the Cañón de Carnué Archaeological Project, I'm working with the Cañón de Carnué Land Grant and the City of Albuquerque's Open Space Division to study the archaeology associated with this land grant community. More information about these projects can be found in the links below:

I have previous experience working in cultural resource management (CRM), and currently serve as Vice Chair of the New Mexico Culture Properties Review Committee. I regularly teach the two core courses (ANTH 540 and 542) for the Graduate Certificate in Cultural Resource Management. The fall course focuses on CRM law, while the second course taught during the spring semester introduces students to the practice of CRM.  

Courses Presently in Rotation

  • ANTH 1115G: Introduction to Anthropology
  • ANTH 1160G: World Archaeology
  • ANTH 315: Archaeological Method and Theory
  • ANTH 318/518: Historical Archaeology
  • ANTH 388/488/522: Archaeological Field School
  • ANTH 503: Anthropological Theory
  • ANTH 540/463: Cultural Resource Management
  • ANTH 542: Cultural Resource Management II
  • ANTH 567: Colonial New Mexico

Other Courses

  • ANTH 433V: Sex, Gender, and Culture (cross-listed with GNDR 433V)
  • HNRS 2161G: Window on Humanity
  • HNRS 387V: Comparative Perspectives on Women
  • Archaeology of Identity
  • Archaeological Lab Techniques
  • Mesoamerican Archaeology