Author Archives: Michael Adler

About Me

Mike Adler and daughter Alex Adler at Machu Picchu

 

Mike Adler is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and holds the William Clements Jr. Endowed Executive Director position in the SMU-in-Taos program.  His academic training is in archaeology, and his primary research focus is the complex ancestries of Native American, particularly Puebloan, communities in the American Southwest. He has also worked overseas in Jordan on early village archaeological contexts.  He has a strong interest in the current roles (and sometimes, failures) of archaeology in the creation of knowledge about the past. He collaborates with Native American communities to investigate concepts of ancestry, cultural identity and how communities create and recreate that complicated concept called “the past.” He also works with traditional acequia irrigation cooperatives in Northern New Mexico to document their ancestral land and water use systems. He works with his students and colleagues to bring archaeology and knowledge of the past to the public, and considers experiential education as one of the most important legacies we can provide to future generations.