People | New Mexico State University - BE BOLD. Shape the Future.

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)

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

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