I am an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan in the Fall of 2010, I taught in the anthropology department at the University of Washington for two years. I received my Ph.D. in anthropology from Penn State University in 2008 and earned my bachelor’s degree in anthropology at UCLA (2001). As an undergraduate at UCLA I gained my first experience conducting research in Mexico. Since 2001, I have been conducting ethnographic and archaeological research in various regions of Mexico including the states of Tlaxcala, Sonora, Oaxaca, and Veracruz. My dissertation research focused on the development of early political economy and stone tool production among the ancient Olmec of Mesoamerica. My current research focuses on undocumented border crossings between Northern Mexico and Southern Arizona (see below).  I consider myself an anthropologist who conducts both ethnographic and archaeological research.

Curriculum Vita

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Current Border Research

As a cultural anthropologist and archaeologist, I am interested in political economy (ancient and modern), undocumented migration, deportation, theories of violence and suffering, borderlands, ethnicity, material culture, and field methods. I currently direct the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), a long-term analysis of clandestine border crossing that employs a combination of archaeology and ethnography to understand this phenomenon in a variety of geographic contexts including the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona, Northern Mexican border towns, and the southern Mexico/Guatemala border.

The long-term goals of this project include: 1) developing a better understanding of the complex process and stages involved in undocumented Latin American migration; 2) examining and elucidating the political economic structure of human smuggling both across Mexico and into the United States; 3) documenting the experiences of under-studied sub-populations of migrants including women, children, members of the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered/Queer (LGBTQ) community, and Non-Mexican Nationals; 4) developing new ethnographic and archaeological methods to better understand clandestine crossing behavior.

Archaeology of the Contemporary Field School

As part of my ongoing research on undocumented migration, I direct an archaeology field school in southern Arizona every other summer.The first field school I ran in 2010 was organized through the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. The syllabus from that course is available for viewing here. I will be conducting this field school again in the summer of 2012 (more details TBA). General information on this field school is listed below:

Field School Background

Since the mid-1990’s, thousands of undocumented migrants from Mexico, Central America, and beyond have been entering the southern United States through Arizona on foot. Migrants will often walk for several days across the harsh Sonora Desert to reach places such as Tucson and Phoenix. Migrants typically carry backpacks loaded with food, clothing, and other provisions. Along the way people will rest, eat, sleep, and often discard these artifacts at temporary campsites known as migrant stations (often referred to as “lay-up” sites by Border Patrol). Hundreds of migrant stations have been identified in southern Arizona alone. Using traditional archaeological analytical methods along with ethnography, anthropologists can study these migrant stations in order to collect data on this clandestine behavior. Stations can provide important information regarding migrant demographics, the political economy of human smuggling, human impacts on the environment, the influence of U.S. immigration policies on migration streams, and the culture of modern migration.

The Undocumented Migration Project field school trains students to use archaeological field methods in order to understand contemporary cultural events. This field school has four primary goals: 1) to provide students with hands-on training in archaeological techniques including survey and mapping, artifact analysis, field photography, and cataloging methods; 2) to provide students with a practical working knowledge of how these procedures are used to answer anthropological research questions; 3) to familiarize students with the many anthropological, environmental, and political issues surrounding undocumented Mexican and Central American migration into the southern United States; 4) to demonstrate the utility in applying archaeological research methods to understand modern cultural behavior.

Collaborators

Many of the photographs used in the Undocumented Migration Project are taken by Michael Wells. You can view his extensive portfolio here and photos from our border projects here.

Popular Press

A news brief about the the 2011 paper I presented at the Society for American Archaeology meetings published in Nature.

A recent article about the Undocumented Migration Project published in Archaeology Magazine in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue.

NPR Story about the UMP  “The Most Confusing Picture Possible”

Article about the UMP in University of Washington Alumni Magazine Columns

Other Popular Media

“The Violent Spiral of Mexico’s Drug War”. Interview on “Weekday with Steve Scher”, NPR KUOW 94.9FM. Initial air date 11/18/2008