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Meet our Department!


Teaching Faculty


Rani Alexander

Department Head; Professor

Office: Breland Hall 316
Phone: 575-646-5809
E-mail: raalexan@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 1993
Interests: Mesoamerican archaeology, historical archaeology of Yucatán, ethnohistory and colonialism, agrarian ecology, fauna analysis


Fumi Arakawa

Director, University Museum; Professor

Office: Kent Hall 207 (University Museum)
Phone: 575-646-4536
E-mail: farakawa@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, Washington State University, 2006
Interests: Prehistoric American Southwest, lithic technological organization, pottery in Mesa Verde region, sociopolitical organization in tribal-level societies


Allison Cantor

Adjunct Professor

E-mail: arcantor@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Applied Anthropology, University of South Florida, 2016
Interests: Biocutural medical anthropology


Nathan Craig

Adjunct Professor

E-mail: nmc@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2005


Gregorio Gonzales

Visiting Assistant Professor

Office: Breland Hall 308
E-mail: ggonz@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin, 2017
Interests: Politics and conditions of race, ethnicity, and Indigeneity manifesting across the New Mexico borderlands


Kelly Jenks

Associate Professor; Graduate Advisor

Office: Breland Hall 305 / Lab: Breland Hall 307
E-mail: kljenks@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Arizona, 2011
Interests: Historical archaeology, cultural resource management, Spanish colonialism, group identities, oral history, ethnohistory


Kathryn Olszowy

Assistant Professor

Office: Breland Hall 304 / Lab: Breland Hall 94
Phone: 575-646-3276 (Lab)
E-mail: kolszowy@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, Binghamton University, 2014
Interests: economic development and chronic disease risk, sex/gender-based disparities in obesity risk, mental and physical health outcomes associated with natural disasters, child growth and development, and the biology of poverty


Mary Alice Scott

Professor (on administrative assignment 2022-2023, sabbatical leave 2023-2024)

Office: Breland Hall 259A
Phone: 575-646-5935
E-mail: mscott2@nmsu.edu 
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Kentucky, 2010
Interests: Medical anthropology


Lois Stanford

Professor (on sabbatical in spring 2023)

Office: Breland Hall 306
Phone: 575-646-6092
E-mail: lstanfor@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Florida, 1989
Interests: Applied anthropology, Food Studies, Latin American studies, agricultural economics


William Walker

Professor

Office: Breland Hall 314
E-mail: wiwalker@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Arizona, 1995
Interests: Southwestern archaeology, religion and witchcraft, ritual in prehistory


 

Resources for faculty: Anthropology Functions and Criteria (updated in 2019)

Staff


Norma Hartell

Curator, University Museum

Office: Kent Hall 203
Phone: 575-646-4056
E-mail: normah@nmsu.edu 
Education: M.A. Anthropology, New Mexico State University, 2016
Interests: Art, historic preservation, muralism, US/Mexico borderland history, art, culture, and community


Lisa Muñoz

Administrative Assistant

E-mail: lmmunoz@nmsu.edu 
Phone: 575-646-2725


 

Affiliated Faculty


Georgina Badoni

E-mail: gbadoni@nmsu.edu 
Education: Ph.D. Native American Studies, University of Arizona, 2017
Interests: Native American visual culture


Judy Berryman

E-mail: jberry12@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, 1995
Interests: Cultural resource management, historical archaeology


Stanley Berryman

E-mail: archyman@sbcglobal.net
Education: Ph.D. Archaeology, University of Leicester, 2014
Interests: Cultural resource management, federal archaeology


Margaret Brown Vega

E-mail:   mybvega@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University at Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008


Alejandro Lugo

E-mail: alugo85@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, Stanford University, 1995
Interests: Border theory, Latino studies, colonialism, capitalism, and cultural production and transformation in the context of transnationalism and globalization


David Steele

E-mail: djsteele@nmsu.edu
Phone: 575-449-4180
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1982
Interests: Medical anthropology, educational anthropology


Sara Stinson

Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1978
Interests: Human growth and development, human adaptation, and nutritional anthropology in South America


 

Affiliated Scholars


Toni Laumbach

Education: B.A. Anthropology, University of New Mexico
Interests: Museum Studies, cultural resource management, Southwest prehistory, ceramic analysis


Bradley Vierra

Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 1992
Interests: Southwest prehistory, Archaic period, lithic technology, cultural resource management

Emeritus Faculty


Brenda Benefit

E-mail: bbenefit@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, New York University, 1987
Interests: Evolution of Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene Catarrhine primates, paleoecology


Miriam Chaiken

E-mail: mchaiken@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1983
Interests: Participatory development, resettlement, and rural health and nutrition, gender, applied anthropology, Africa and SE Asia


Thomas Conelly

E-mail: tconelly@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1983
Interests: Agriculture, ecological anthropology, applied anthropology, SE Asia, East Africa, Amish communities in the U.S.


Christine Eber

E-mail: ceber@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, State University of New York, 1991
Interests: Art, drugs, gender, religion, Mesoamerica, women’s studies, and writing about culture


Beth O’Leary

E-mail: boleary@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 1985
Interests: Southwest archaeology, cultural resource management, subarctic ethnography


Monte McCrossin

E-mail: mmccross@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 1994
Interests: Human evolution, primate paleontology, paleoecology


Donald Pepion

E-mail: dpepion@nmsu.edu
Education: Ed.D. Adult, Community, and Higher Education, Montana State University, 1999
Interests: Indigenous ways of knowing, participatory research methodology, decolonizing/indigenizing theory & methods, theories/practices of oppression & colonization, critical theory & tribal critical race theory, Native American spirituality & philosophy, Indigenous cultural strengths & resiliency, Native American traditional learning processes, Indigenous leadership concepts, and ethnohistory of the Blackfeet

Scott Rushforth

E-mail: srushfor@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Arizona, 1977
Interests: Linguistics, Native American ethnography, Athapaskan languages and cultures


Edward Staski

E-mail: estaski@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Arizona, 1983
Interests: Urban archaeology, historical archaeology


Wenda Trevathan

E-mail: wtrevath@nmsu.edu
Education: Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1980
Interests: Childbirth, maternal behavior, evolutionary medicine, sexuality