Biography
Education
- Ph.D.,1995 UCLA
- M.A., 1987 UCLA
- B.A., 1984 Beloit College
Courses Taught
- Anthropology 150 (The Human Adventure: Introduction to Anthropology)
- Anthropology 396 (War, Conflict, and Sacrifice in Antiquity)
- Anthropology 490A (Seminar in Archaeology: Archaeological Landscapes).
Selected Publications and Presentations
2008 War and Place: Landscapes of Conflict in Prehistory. Journal of Conflict Archaeology 4 (1-2), pp. 147-158
Snead, James E., and Mark W. Allen, eds.
2011 Burnt Corn Pueblo: Conflagration and Conflict in the Galisteo Basin, AD 1250-1350. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona no. 74.Snead, James E., Clark L. Erickson, and J. Andrew Darling, eds.
2009 Landscapes of Movement: Paths, Trails, and Roads in Anthropological Perspective. University of Pennsylvania Museum Press, Philadelphia.Snead, James E., and Jeremy A. Sabloff
2010 Professional Societies and the Lives of American Archaeologists. In Voices in American Archaeology, edited by Wendy Ashmore, Dorothy Lippert, and Barbara Mills. Society for American Archaeology Press, Washington.
Research and Interests
I was raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, attending college in Wisconsin and California. I came to CSUN after holding a number of residential fellowships (American Museum of Natural History; Clements Center for Southwest Research, SMU) and 11 years teaching at George Mason University. Within the past decade I have held research grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the National Science Foundation, with additional support from the Huntington Library, the American Antiquarian Society, the Historical Society of Southern California, and the School of Advanced Research in the Human Condition. I have conducted fieldwork both in the United States and abroad, emphasizing the study of archaeological landscapes, with a deep interest in conflict, identity, and movement. Current initiatives focus on the American West, with longstanding archaeological projects in northern New Mexico and new initiatives in historical archaeology under development in southern California.
Current Projects:
• Forgotten Casualties Project. This new research initiative examines the aftermath of the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, which killed as many as 500 people in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties but has been largely forgotten. Our work uses archival and archaeological sources to contextualize the dead of this catastrophe in order to better understand their lives and to situate the event within new cultural, social, and historical frameworks.
• Tano Origins Project. This multi-year effort focuses on the cultural landscape of New Mexico’s Galisteo Basin in the Ancestral Pueblo era, studying landscapes of settlement and conflict in the late AD 1200s through archaeological survey and excavation. Of particular interest is Burnt Corn Pueblo, a major settlement of the era that was destroyed by fire @ AD 1310.
• Encountering Antiquity Project. This intensive archival study in the history of archaeology examines the public engagement with antiquities in the 19th century United States. The MS in progress uses correspondence, maps, and drawings to illustrate the complex role played by the remains of indigenous history in the American landscape in this critical era of national development.
5 keywords that describe your topical areas of specialization:
Archaeology, Space/Place, Landscape, Conflict, History
Geographic areas of specialization:
Western United States