bio
seiselt@smu.edu
Sunday joined Southern Methodist University as an Visiting Assistant Professor
in the Fall of 2006 after receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in
March of the same year. In 2008 she joined the SMU faculty as a tenure track
Assistant Professor. With a specialization in Archaeology, she has studied in
numerous geographic regions including Mexico, the U.S. Southwest, California
and the Great Basin. Her research interests include archaeological ceramics
and pottery manufacturing, community-based archaeology, the historical
archaeology of Native and Hispanic people of the Southwest, and the effects of
Colonialism on Indigenous cultural identities and traditions in the Spanish
borderlands. Some of her other interests include childhood archaeology
and historic period rock art as these relate to the American occupation of New
Mexico and symbolic landscape ideologies.
Over the past nine years she has worked with numerous micaceous potters
in New Mexico to study traditional clay prospecting, harvesting, and
production techniques, and she has conducted an extensive micaceous clay
source survey with the help of these potters. This survey included geochemical
testing or clay source and ceramic samples to reveal the complex development
of New Mexico's micaceous pottery tradition from A.D. 1300 to the present as
well as the role of female labor in sustaining household economies.
This work includes a special interest in the transformation of micaceous pottery
from a humble culinary ware - traded largely between rural women during the
historical era - to its spectacular entry into the modern art market during the
late 1990s.
A special interest in ceramics and archaeology have allowed her to
examine issues of multiculturalism in the Spanish borderlands including the
impact of colonization on the Jicarilla Apache and other mounted horse
nomads of the region from an archaeological perspective. As one of the
leading experts on micaceous pottery of the northern Rio Grande, she has
assisted in cases involving Pueblo Indian rights to traditional clay pits
threatened by industrial mining.
in the Fall of 2006 after receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in
March of the same year. In 2008 she joined the SMU faculty as a tenure track
Assistant Professor. With a specialization in Archaeology, she has studied in
numerous geographic regions including Mexico, the U.S. Southwest, California
and the Great Basin. Her research interests include archaeological ceramics
and pottery manufacturing, community-based archaeology, the historical
archaeology of Native and Hispanic people of the Southwest, and the effects of
Colonialism on Indigenous cultural identities and traditions in the Spanish
borderlands. Some of her other interests include childhood archaeology
and historic period rock art as these relate to the American occupation of New
Mexico and symbolic landscape ideologies.
Over the past nine years she has worked with numerous micaceous potters
in New Mexico to study traditional clay prospecting, harvesting, and
production techniques, and she has conducted an extensive micaceous clay
source survey with the help of these potters. This survey included geochemical
testing or clay source and ceramic samples to reveal the complex development
of New Mexico's micaceous pottery tradition from A.D. 1300 to the present as
well as the role of female labor in sustaining household economies.
This work includes a special interest in the transformation of micaceous pottery
from a humble culinary ware - traded largely between rural women during the
historical era - to its spectacular entry into the modern art market during the
late 1990s.
A special interest in ceramics and archaeology have allowed her to
examine issues of multiculturalism in the Spanish borderlands including the
impact of colonization on the Jicarilla Apache and other mounted horse
nomads of the region from an archaeological perspective. As one of the
leading experts on micaceous pottery of the northern Rio Grande, she has
assisted in cases involving Pueblo Indian rights to traditional clay pits
threatened by industrial mining.
Felipe V. Ortega
Mentor and consultant
Mentor and consultant