SAR News 
Three New Mexico Organizations Join Together to Host the Twelfth Annual Pueblo Fiber Arts Show Memorial Day Weekend
The New Mexico Pueblo Fiber Arts Guild, in collaboration with the Poeh Cultural Center and School for Advanced Research (SAR), is pleased to announce the Twelfth Annual Pueblo Fiber Arts Show on Saturday, May 27, 2023, from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. The show will take place at...
SAR Member Trip to Glorieta Pass and Pecos National Historical Park
By Melinda Sue Robbins, Grants Manager, School for Advanced ResearchOn the morning of May 3, 20-plus SAR members began a guided excursion to Glorieta Pass and Pecos National Historical Park. The day began at SAR’s Dobkin Boardroom with a presentation by historian...
SAR Welcomes Two New Board Members
The School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is pleased to welcome two new members to its board of directors: Larry Colton and Ed Gale. President Michael F. Brown describes these additions to the board as evidence of SAR’s ongoing commitment to recruiting directors who bring the widest possible range of life experiences and professional accomplishments to the organization’s leadership team.
Reflections on the Origin of a Dangerous Concept
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...
First SAR Centennial Medal Presented to N. Scott Momaday
On February 25, SAR President Michael F. Brown, Ph.D., presented SAR's first ever Centennial Medal to author N. Scott Momaday for distinguished service to SAR and the world. The award was presented during the SAR board reception at the La Fonda Hotel. Momaday was a...
Twelve Tips for Item Care in Your Home
By Laura Elliff Cruz, Collections Manager, Indian Arts Research Center, School for Advanced Research After teaching an SAR member class in early December, Caring for Your Personal Collections at Home: An Introduction to Collections Care, I realized how busy everyday...
Accolades for the Landmark Exhibition Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery
On July 31 this year Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery opened in Santa Fe at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. The exhibition, curated by the Pueblo Pottery Collective and organized by the School for Advanced Research and the Vilcek Foundation, has...
SAR Artist Alumnus Co-Curates Important Exhibition of Native American Photography
Will Wilson, the Santa Fe-based Navajo photographer and 2013 Rollin and Mary Ella King Artist Fellow at SAR, has co-curated a major exhibition of contemporary Native American photography at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas. The...
Lives and Afterlives: Reflections on the 2022 Resident Scholar Colloquium Series
Written by Paul Ryer, Scholar Programs Director With the end of Robert Weiner’s compelling presentation about the roads of Chaco Canyon on December 14, we successfully concluded SAR’s 2022 Resident Scholar colloquium series. Using the format we have evolved over the...
2022 Staley Prize Awarded to J. Lorand Matory at Duke University
On November 3, 2022, SAR President Michael F. Brown presented the 2022 J.I. Staley Prize to J. Lorand Matory, Duke University, at an event in Durham, North Carolina, hosted by Duke's School of Arts & Sciences. Matory is the Lawrence Richardson Distinguished...
Film Day Rewind
Written by Paloma López, Educator, Indian Arts Research Center Sunday, November 6 was Film Day at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (MIAC). The School for Advanced Research (SAR) and MIAC teamed up for a day of screenings, panels, and demonstrations in...
In Memoriam: Pat Courtney Gold (1939-2022)
Very recently, we received news that 2009 Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native Artist Fellow Pat Courtney Gold passed away on July 11, 2022. Pat, a Wasco basketmaker, grew up on the Warm Springs Reservation in the mid-Columbia River area of central Oregon. In her youth, she...
SAR Alumna Publishes Award-Winning Book on Community & Ethnic Change in South Central L.A.
Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (Sociology, USC), a 2017-2018 Weatherhead Fellow, was recently honored for a book written during her time at SAR. South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A. (NYU Press), co-authored with Manuel Pastor, is a...
‘Who Were You When You Stepped to This Pot?’ :
‘Who Were You When You Stepped to This Pot?’1: A Lesson in Community Curation from Grounded in Clay Guest post by Emily SanthanamConsider when and where you’ve seen Pueblo pottery in a museum. How was it displayed? Who wrote the label? What did it tell you about the...
Forging Her Path: Dr. Adriana María Linares-Palma, 2021-2022 Paloheimo Fellow
Written by Kat Bernhardt, Advancement Associate, SAR With her sparkling dark eyes and guarded genuine smile, there is a big-hearted openness about Dr. Adriana María Linares-Palma, 2021-2022 Paloheimo Fellow in residence at the School for Advanced Research (SAR) in...
SAR Announces 2022-2023 Native Artist Fellows
SAR Announces 2022-2023 Native American Artist Fellows: Hollis Chitto, Orlando Dugi, and Janna Avner.
SAR Board Member Awarded 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship
Brenda Child, the Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has been awarded a 2022 Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Child was a Katrin Lamon Fellow at SAR in 1992-1993 and now serves on SAR's board...
In Memoriam Nancy Owen Lewis (1945–2022)
With great sadness, SAR notes the passing of Dr. Nancy Owen Lewis, our longtime Director of Scholar Programs, Scholar-in-Residence, and tireless advocate, tour guide, public speaker, and prolific author. Before coming to SAR, Nancy received her Ph.D. in cultural...
SAR Remembers Ronald N. Dubin
The Board of Directors and staff of the School for Advanced Research together mourn the loss of Ronald N. Dubin, who passed away in Greenwich, Connecticut, on December 30 at the age of eighty-nine.
SAR Awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is proud to announce that it recently received notice that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will award the school $167,825 through the NEH American Rescue Plan, which provides relief funding for cultural and educational institutions to help them recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.
2021 Resident Scholars Colloquium Series
SAR Announces the 2021 resident scholar colloquium series. From a presentation on race-making in Albania to an exploration of Indigenous perspectives on the WWII Manhattan Project, scholar colloquia are a unique opportunity to hear about each of the 2021 resident scholar projects from the researchers themselves.
SAR Welcomes New Board Members
The School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is pleased to welcome six new board members: John Arroyo, Brenda J. Child, Estevan Rael-Gálvez, Steve Robinson, Don Siegel, and David A. Young.
The Long, Dark Journey of a Historic Textile Treasure
This winter, IARC collections staff and interns, journeyed to Oklahoma to share with community members one of the most storied textiles in the IARC collection – the Chief White Antelope Blanket (CWAB). The Annual Gathering of the Sand Creek Descendants, held in Apache, Oklahoma, brought out between 200 and 300 people for dancing, food, and to pay tribute to the blanket. For some attendees, it was their first time to see this historic blanket. Learn more about this important piece and the continued collaborative collections-care approach taken by the IARC staff for this textile.
“We were honored to bring the blanket back to be a part of this important gathering,” says IARC collections manager, Lisa Barerra. “Since the mid-1990s,” she adds, “the IARC at SAR has worked closely with the Sand Creek Massacre Descendants Trust (SCMDT) regarding care and access to the blanket, including an agreement to bring the blanket for the gathering every two years. However, the last time the CWAB went back was actually in December 2014. While the CWAB is currently not on display (at the request of the SCMDT), an approved photograph of the blanket is available for viewing at IARC.” The photograph can be viewed during an IARC collections tour and requests to view the actual blanket require written permission from the SCMDT to do so. Reflecting on the trip and the collaborative efforts happening at the IARC, Harerra notes, “We look forward to continuing to work together with the SCMDT in the future!”
Showing Our Strength: Resilience and Compassion in the Indigenous Southwest
Free virtual event explores resilience and perseverance across pueblo communities over the last year.
The School for Advanced Research (SAR), in partnership with Thornburg, presents Showing Our Strength: Resilience and Compassion in the Indigenous Southwest (hosted online, July 8, 2021, 2:00 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time).
El Delirio Virtual Campus Tour
We invite you to take a virtual tour of El Delirio. Learn about the origins of the buildings and the historical significance of the sprawling estate that is now SAR’s campus. Join your guide, SAR scholar-in-residence Nancy Owen Lewis, for a delightful online tour complete with archival and contemporary visuals from SAR’s collections.
2021 J. I. Staley Prize Awarded to Laurence Ralph for Renegade Dreams, Living Through Injury in Gangland Chicago
The School for Advanced Research is pleased to announce that the 2021 J. I. Staley Prize will go to Laurence Ralph, professor of anthropology at Princeton University and director of the Center on Transnational Policing, for his 2014 book, Renegade Dreams: Living through Injury in Gangland Chicago (University of Chicago Press).
SAR Learns! $50,000 Awarded to Support Indigenous Artists
The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is pleased to announce our new initiative, SAR Learns! Out of a desire to support intergenerational learning and creativity during the pandemic, SAR Learns! will assist with knowledge transmission specifically within the context of the ongoing pandemic. The program will distribute $50,000, utilizing re-directed grant funds, that will enable sixteen artists to launch or complete a variety of proposed projects.
SAR Remembers Marshall David Sahlins
The School for Advanced Research(SAR) mourns the passing of Marshall David Sahlins: a preeminent anthropologist and SAR supporter whose academic work repeatedly transformed anthropology, and whose activism informed the public. Read two personal reflections by Michael F. Brown (SAR President) and Paul Ryer (Director, SAR Scholar Programs) who like so many leading anthropologists today studied at some point with professor Sahlins.
SAR Announces 2021-2022 Native Artist Fellows
SAR Announces 2021-2022 Native American Artist Fellows: Lehuauakea, Brandon Adriano Ortiz, and Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty.
The Pandemic Shift: The School for Advanced Research Annual Report
Every year SAR publishes its Annual Report, which describes accomplishments and acknowledges supporters over the previous fiscal year. Our 2019–2020 report is no different, and yet so much has changed, as President Michael F. Brown explains.