Current Research


                                    Current research projects include a book-length work on Wichita Indian tribal life
                             in the 1940s and 1950s, an examination of social networks among tribal
                             organizations in western Oklahoma, an analysis of Native American obituaries,
                             and an ethnohistory of the Keechi Indians.

                             My dissertation research focused on social networks and the perpetuation and
                             preservation of traditional knowledge systems among the Caddo Nation and
                             Delaware Nation in western Oklahoma. More specifically, this work examined
                             the roles of individuals and organizations in the work of cultural reproduction.
                             This research was funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and the
                             American Philosophical Society. I am currently preparing a book manuscript
                             based on this research.

                             Topical and theoretical interests include social networks and social structure,
                             knowledge systems and ways of knowing, material culture and museum
                             anthropology, cultural preservation efforts, expressive culture, economic and
                             ecological anthropology.

                             Geographic areas of specialty include Native North America, particularly the
                             Eastern Woodlands and the Southern Plains, and Latin America with an emphasis
                             on Mesoamerica.




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