Patricia L.
Crown
Page 3
My principal areas of expertise are Southwestern archaeology and ceramic analysis. Most of my research has
concerned ceramic production and exchange and the economic basis for the emergence of communities in the
American Southwest. I have conducted materials analyses of ceramics at Los Alamos National Laboratory
and the Smithsonian Institution to resolve particular research questions. Gender, ideology, and learning
frameworks have played an important role in my research, writing, and teaching. After co-directing the
excavation of the trash mounds at Pueblo Bonito, my NSF-funded project analyzed the artifacts from those
excavations and employed nine graduate and nine undergraduate students. With a collaborator from the
Hershey Technical Center, I discovered the first evidence for the use of cacao north of the Mexican border, in
Chaco Canyon. With NSF funding, we expanded this study to examine the use and exchange of caffeinated
products in the American Southwest, including chocolate drinks. To further examine the dating of chocolate
ritual in Chaco, I reexcavated Room 28 in Pueblo Bonito (the room with a cache of over 100 cylinder jars)
with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Geographic Society in
summer 2013. I am currently writing an edited volume detailing the results of that project.
I teach courses that reflect my research interests, such as Southwestern Prehistory, Ceramic Analysis,
Ceramic Theory, and Archaeological Approaches to Gender, as well as courses that meet the needs of the
Anthropology Department, Advanced Laboratory Methods in Archaeology and Archaeological Research
Design and Proposal Writing. I created a course on Teaching Anthropology to prepare our graduate students
for careers in academia. I particularly strive to provide hands-on experience with laboratory methods. My
courses also introduce students to professional activities, such as paper presentation, poster preparation, and
grant proposal writing. My teaching methods encourage active learning and engage different styles of
learning, but the specific methods used in the classroom vary depending on the subject matter. For the
Advanced Laboratory Methods in Archaeology course, I combine lecture, slide presentations, video clips, and
class discussion, with hands-on activity-based learning in the laboratory portion of the course. In all of my
graduate courses, I insist on engaged discussion and all students must complete an activity that prepares them
for life as a professional: preparing a poster or oral presentation in the style of the national meetings, giving
job talks, lecturing to large classes of undergraduates and being videotaped for later self critique, and running
discussion sections. I want students to gain more than knowledge from my classes through experiences that
will help them with their professional lives. I give prompt feedback in all classes, through written
evaluations, notes on assignments, or in-class assessments. I have high expectations of all of my students.
I have served the profession in a variety of capacities for the American Anthropological Association, the
Society for American
Archaeology, and the Society for Archaeological Science. I particularly served as
Chair of the Archeology Division of the American Anthropological Association, a division with 1500
members, and on the Board of Directors for the Society for American Archaeology. I have consulted with the
Museum of New Mexico's Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the National Park Service, the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, and private archaeological contract firms. I have served on review panels for NSF, NEH, the
American Philosophical Society, and the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. I have served as an outside
reviewer for 51 tenure and promotion evaluations at 24 different universities and as an outside reviewer on
two departmental reviews.
Patricia L. Crown
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Research Experience
2013-present
Re-excavation of Room 28 in Pueblo Bonito
2005, 2006, 2010, 2013 co-Director UNM Archaeological Field School at Chaco
2007-2010
Material Culture of Pueblo Bonito Mounds study. Thorough analysis of artifacts from
2004-2007 UNM excavations in the trash mounds at Pueblo Bonito.
2007-present
Organic residue analysis of ceramics from Pueblo Bonito with collaborators from Sandia
National Laboratory, UNM Chemistry Department, and Hershey’s Technical
Center.
2005-2007
co-Director, Chaco Stratigraphy Project, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Reexcavation of
trenches through the trash mounds at Pueblo Bonito.
1998-present
Principal Investigator, Becoming a Potter Study. Study of how children learned to
become pottery producers in the American Southwest. Whole vessel study of
pots in 8 museums.
1996
Co-Director, University of New Mexico Archaeological Field School, Canada de Cochiti,
New Mexico.
1985-1990
Director, Southern Methodist University Archaeological Field School, Pot Creek Pueblo,
Taos, New Mexico.
1984-1991
Principal Investigator, Salado Polychrome Study. Compositional study carried out at Los
Alamos National Laboratory and Smithsonian Institution. Whole vessel study of
collections in 8 museums.
1980-1984
Project Supervisor, Salt-Gila Aqueduct Project, Arizona State Museum, University of
Arizona.
1979-1980
Assistant Project Supervisor, St. Johns Project, Arizona State Museum, University of
Arizona.
1976-1979
Crew Chief, University of Arizona Archaeological Field School, Grasshopper, Arizona.
Scholarly Achievements:
Books authored or co-authored:
1994
Ceramics and Ideology: Salado Polychrome Pottery. University of New Mexico Press.
475 pp. (submitted 1991)
Books edited or co-edited:
2016
The Pueblo Bonito Mounds of Chaco Canyon: Material Culture and Fauna,
edited by
Patricia Crown. UNM Press, Albuquerque. 274 pp. (Submitted 2014)
2008
Social Violence in the Prehispanic American Southwest, edited by D. Nichols and P.
Crown. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. (submitted 2005)
2000
Women and Men in the prehispanic Southwest: gendered perspectives on labor, power,
and prestige in the American Southwest, edited by P. L. Crown. School of American
Research Press, Santa Fe. 503 pp. (submitted 1998)