Lea S. McChesney

Working principally in the US Southwest and concerned to understand the transformation of Native arts during the twentieth century, my research contributes to debates on authenticity, hybridity, and indigeneity.  In several recent publications, I stress the role of indigenous knowledge and artistic intent simultaneously with a critical understanding of Western institutional practices.  Traditional Hopi potter Karen Kahe Charley and I are currently collaborating on a cultural heritage project with a Peabody Museum collection intended to bridge an existing disconnect between curatorial, “objective” knowledge and potters’ experiential knowledge that is not yet inscribed within the canon.  We will explore ways of representing cultural memory honoring Hopi values in new forms of inscription, including accessing pottery aesthetics as an embodied language.  My other research interests include the history of American anthropology, economic anthropology, and sexual violence. 

Curator of Ethnology, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, UNM

Director, Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies, UNM

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, UNM

Editor, Museum Anthropology

Material, visual, and expressive culture; representation and inscription; indigeneity, gender, and identity; critical museology and cultural heritage