Several years ago, I alerted our board of directors of my intention to retire after ten years as SAR’s twelfth president. I am now on the cusp of that milestone. Leading SAR has been a privilege and the pinnacle of my career as an anthropologist and educator. One thing I’ve learned over a long career, however, is that institutions need new leadership at regular intervals to meet the challenges of a changing world. That’s why I chose to step down now.
In the past few weeks, SAR lost two important friends and accomplished scholars, J.J. Brody and Duane C. Anderson. Both played important roles in SAR’s history.
Both Ned Blackhawk (Katrin Lamon Fellow, 1996-1997; SAR Board of Directors 2017-2023) and Tiya Miles (SAR Fellow, 2007-2008) have been named 2024 Guggenheim Fellows. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awards these fellowships annually to “exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions.”
Navarre Scott Momaday, the nation’s most celebrated Native American writer, died at his home in Santa Fe on January 24. He was 89. Momaday, a member of the Kiowa Tribe, is remembered at SAR for his long service to this institution: as a Katrin Lamon Resident...
New Year’s festivities inevitably include reviews of the year that’s winding down. For SAR’s first blog post of 2024, I prefer to pivot toward the near future. Although some details have yet to fall into place, I’m pleased to identify highlights of...
The School for Advanced Research is sad to report news of the death of long-time SAR supporter Barbara H. Tedlock on September 11, 2023, in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
An interview of Tiya Miles (History, Harvard), an SAR resident scholar in 2007-2008, appeared in the New York Times Book Review’s “By the Book” section on October 15. In the interview, Miles describes her childhood passion for reading: “Reading...
In a public award event held at San Miguel Chapel on May 18, the School for Advanced Research received the Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s 2023 Preservation Award for the extensive renovation work on its historic El Delirio campus completed over the past three...
[Featured image courtesy of Mike MacKenzie, https://www.vpnsrus.com/, and Wikimedia Commons] Various SAR members have suggested that SAR bring to Santa Fe an expert to talk about the possibilities and risks of deploying artificial intelligence (AI). We’re...
On April 13 and 14, 2023, SAR hosted two events focused on the invention of the concept of race in eighteenth-century Europe and its implications. The conversation was led by noted Harvard faculty member and PBS personality Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and his colleague...
