Dean J. Saitta

I received my PhD in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1987. I’ve taught at DU since 1988. I teach courses in anthropological theory, North American archaeology, evolutionary anthropology, and urban studies. My early work inquired into social change in ancient Zuni society of west-central New Mexico, where I directed DU archaeological field schools throughout the 1990s. Other publications focused on the great Native American cultural centers at Cahokia and Chaco Canyon. Between 1997-2004 I co-directed the Colorado Coal Field War Archaeological Project, dedicated to better understanding events related to the 1913-14 Colorado Coal Field strike including the infamous Ludlow Massacre. This research included significant public outreach and K-12 education initiatives and culminated, in 2009, with the designation of the Ludlow Massacre site as a National Historical Landmark. I’m the author of The Archaeology of Collective Action, and co-author of Denver: An Archaeological History. In 1998 I earned the University Scholar-Teacher of the Year award, and from 2000-2003 I served as University Professor of Social Science. In 2013 I convened the John Evans Study Committee that investigated the university founder’s culpability for events that culminated in the massacre of peacefully camped Native Americans at Sand Creek in 1864. I’m currently researching and writing about issues facing the contemporary city from a cross-cultural and deep-time perspective. I write and edit a blog called Intercultural Urbanism, and I’m a featured essayist for the public interest urban planning website Planetizen.