Processing a Pandemic: A Conversation with Alan Swedlund
To understand pandemics you have to know what’s going on in the small places because a pandemic is not uniform around the country or uniform by age or uniform by class or anything.
In the Vault: Coil and Sifter Basket, Pootsaya
SAR Indian Arts Research Center staff members reflect on their favorite pieces from the collection. Read on about a unique work by Iva Honyestewa, 2014 Eric and Barbara Dobkin fellow, selected by IARC Administrative Assistant, Daniel Kurnit.
Mentors and Friends: SAR’s 2019–2020 Resident Scholars
Every year SAR welcomes a new cohort of resident scholars, who spend nine months studying, writing, and participating in the intellectual life of the campus. As usual, the 2019–2020 scholars brought with them a variety of interests and projects, but they came together in their appreciation of the time, the place, and the community they found here.
Bearing Witness and Raising Awareness: A Conversation with Jason De León
Jason De León, SAR’s 2013–2014 Weatherhead fellow and a 2017 MacArthur fellow, is a professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and director of the Undocumented Migration Project, a non-profit research-art-education-media collective. I recently spoke with him to learn more about his new exhibition: Hostile Terrain 94.
In the Vault: Miniature Basket Illustrates the Big Impact of Tiny Things
Over the last few weeks, SAR Indian Arts Research Center staff members have spent some time reflecting on their favorite pieces from the collection. Here is one of the pieces that was selected by IARC collections assistant Molly Winslow.
Exclusive Video Interview with Leah Mata Fragua: Everyone and Everything Is a Teacher
Northern Chumash artist Leah Mata Fragua wants her art to make you stop and think about how the world is changing around you—for better or worse.
IARC Native Artist Fellow Ian Kuali’i Interviewed by Smithsonian Magazine
Paper. Spray paint. Yucca fibers. Hip-hop. Pick your medium, and there is a decent chance that IARC 2019 Ronald and Susan Dubin Native artist fellow Ian Kuali’i has at least dabbled in it.
SAR Fellows Pivot from Couture to Face Masks
Face masks are now required in many public spaces around the country. “These are things we never thought would become a fashion necessity,” says Dorothy Grant (Haida), one of two recent SAR fellows who are uniquely positioned to help fulfill our new need for face coverings.
From SAR Press: Elites
Almost every week brings an announcement related to the growth of open access in scholarly publishing: new studies, partnerships, and innovations. Over the past six months or so, I have begun my own experiment with open access at SAR Press and chosen one of our classic Advanced Seminar volumes to make openly available on the website: Elites, edited by George Marcus and published in 1983.
SAR Launches SAR Impacts: A New Video Series and Members-Only Conversations with Scholars and Artists
The School for Advanced Research is now highlighting the stories of its scholars and artists in a whole new way. SAR Impacts is a new video series that explores the work of one scholar or artist and showcases its impact and relevance to our world today. “The work of...
“It’s a conversation”: The President’s Circle Field Trip to Los Angeles
Trip participants hear from Amy Gusick, associate curator of anthropology, during a behind-the-scenes tour of the collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Photo by Kitty Leaken. “I love museums, and I love getting back behind the...
Former SAR Scholar Carla Sinopoli Highlights Museums’ Contribution during Current Health Crisis
Former SAR Weatherhead fellow and director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Carla Sinopoli shares some of the ways she and her staff are supporting patrons during the pandemic and discusses the importance of museums at this time.
New Mexico in a Time of Influenza
SAR Scholar-In-Residence, Nancy Owen Lewis, author of Chasing the Cure in New Mexico: Tuberculosis and the Quest for Health, shares a guest post exploring the impact of the 1918 flu in New Mexico and lessons to be learned within the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Lessons from the Delhi Metro with Rashmi Sadana
Dr. Rashmi Sadana, this year’s Weatherhead fellows at SAR. discusses her project, Gender, Urban Space, and Everyday Life in the Age of the Delhi Metro, 2002–2018 exploring how the metro affects the nearly three million people who use it and how women and men of different classes interact in its newly created spaces.
SAR Press Top Reads: 2019–2020 Resident Scholar Picks
A selection of this year’s resident scholars—who study everything from ancient drinking practices in Chaco Canyon to the newly built Delhi metro—have recommended the SAR Press books they find most useful, thought provoking, or even just enjoyable. We hope you enjoy them, too.
SAR Announces 2020-2021 Native American Artist Fellows
SAR Announces 2019-2020 Native American Artist Fellows: Mikayla Patton, Venancio Aragon, and Neebinnaukzhik Southall.
SAR Curated. Building the Indian Arts Research Center
In 1977 Doug Schwartz, who was then the president of SAR, hired Art Wolf to be the curator of collections. Wolf’s task was to oversee the building of the facility that would become the IARC, which now stewards a collection of nearly 12,000 artworks.
Staying Connected
In addition to canceling, postponing, or livestreaming our in-person public programs until April 30, we have reluctantly decided to close the SAR campus to the public until further notice.
We understand that your mailboxes are flooded with messages about responses to Covid-19 and it can seem overwhelming. But now is a good time to reflect and find new ways to engage with one another. So we can’t engage in-person? Let’s connect from home. Here are several ways you can continue to be part of the SAR community from afar.
From SAR Press: Bioinsecurity and Vulnerability
SAR Press is now offering a free download of our 2014 Bioinsecurity and Vulnerability. In times of crisis, we rely on experts to help us make decisions and understand the impacts of those decisions. In the coming weeks and months, as we try to make sense of the Coronavirus and its spread, we will be looking not only to epidemiologists and doctors, but also to anthropologists, sociologists, and others who can provide insight into the social and historical dimensions of the outbreak.
2020 J.I. Staley Prize Awarded to a Powerful Examination of Life, Death, and Care, among Inuit Communities.
Lisa Stevenson’s Life Beside Itself examines two historical moments among the Inuit of northern Canada: a tuberculosis epidemic in the mid-twentieth century and an epidemic of suicides among Inuit youth today. Through richly textured analysis, Stevenson shows how suicide prevention programs disregard what makes life worthwhile to Inuit people. Life Beside Itself deftly weaves together ethnography, archival voice recordings, and images to raise new questions about life, death, and care.
New from SAR Press: Walling In and Walling Out
In the latest Advanced Seminar volume from SAR Press, co-editors Laura McAtackney and Randall McGuire ask a timely question: Why are we building new barriers to divide us? Walling In and Walling Out brings together scholars from the fields of anthropology, archaeology, city and regional planning, geography, and Latino and Caribbean studies to investigate examples of wall building around the world, past and present.
SAR Press Top Reads: Chaco Canyon
From excavations of Chaco in the early nineteenth century to the latest research on cosmology, monumental architecture, and long-distance trade, SAR has supported scholars who wish to understand and protect this unique place—and shared their findings with other researchers and the public.
From Within: IARC Arts Program Aims to Empower Incarcerated Youth
Santa Fe’s Youth Development Program houses incarcerated youth from Santa Fe and surrounding areas, many of whom come from Native American communities. As stewards of important cultural works, the School for Advanced Research’s Indian Arts Research Center has developed a program that enables the education staff to facilitate art activities with these youth. Open until February 7, 2020, From Within, shares the work that has been created created out of this partnership.
For IARC Education Department, Native American Community Connections Matter
For Felicia Garcia, SAR’s new curator of education at the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC), one of the most exciting reasons to be at SAR is a proven dedication to community that drives much of the work at the IARC. We spoke with Felicia about what makes the IARC unique, the importance of land acknowledgement practices, and how the education department fits within the organization. Listen to the full interview and explore highlighted excerpts.
IARC Speaker Series Explores Indigenous-Based Cultural Preservation
SAR is proud to present a series of conversation-style presentations exploring today’s world of cultural preservation. This year’s IARC speaker series takes us on a journey beyond the Pueblo communities within which we are situated, to shed light on the many remarkable ways indigenous-based cultural preservation is happening nationally.
Celebrating SAR Press at AAA
For the first time, SAR Press participated in the AAA’s Celebration of Authors, and hosted a book signing that featured our most recent publications.
Chaco Landscapes: Sensory and Political Engagements with Place
The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is pleased to announce the next event in our third annual Creative Thought Forum Series. Archaeologist Ruth Van Dyke presents Chaco Landscapes: Sensory and Political Engagements with Place. In her talk she shares insights into past and present social, political, and sensorial relationships across the greater Chaco landscape. She explores how archaeologists can work together with Native peoples to influence the public understanding of contemporary economic/extractive projects, including those in northwest New Mexico.
Border Land, Border Water: A Conversation with C. J. Alvarez
While in residence at SAR, C. J. Alvarez is working on a history of the Chihuahuan Desert that considers this area as an ecosystem rather than a political territory along a border. As we talked, I learned more about his new environmental history of the border region and what he’s gaining from his time in Santa Fe.
SAR Impacts: The Psychology of Patriarchy
In a world where conversations are becoming more polarized, how do we find common ground? Regardless of where you stand, we face a crisis around the issue of public dialogue. “SAR is a unique place in that it allows intellectualism to breathe. We’re trying to build a society where complex ideas can be discussed and exchanged. Complex issues need creativity to percolate in order to be solved in our fast-paced world.” — Adriana M. Manago, co-chair of The Psychology of Patriarchy advanced seminar. Learn more about the 2015 seminar and the subsequent 2019 SAR Press publication.
A Gift to Future Scholars: Bequest Ensures Schwartz Seminar House Improvements
Since 1968, SAR’s seminar programs have given time and space to groups of scholars working together to push intellectual and academic boundaries. This year, SAR received a bequest to fund improvements to the Schwartz Seminar House where we host our advanced, short, and research team seminars. Learn more about the life of Pat Kuhlhoff and the programs her generous gift supports.