Kelly Dixon

Office Location: Social Science Building 235

Office Telephone: 406 243 2450

Current Position

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Description

Kelly J. Dixon (Ph.D., University of Nevada) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at The University of Montana. Her book, Boomtown Saloons: Archaeology and History in Virginia City (2005), is based on her archaeological fieldwork in Virginia City, Nevada (http://www.nvbooks.nevada.edu/books.asp?ID=2458). An overview of the information from the African American saloon featured in that book can be found here: http://www.diaspora.uiuc.edu/news0606/news0606.html#2.

Among Dixon’s other recent publications are: “The Donner Party: An Archaeological Perspective on a Tragedy in the Sierras,” Historical Methods (2007); “When Fancy Gets The Upper Hand of Fact: Historical Archaeology and Popular Culture in the American West,” Archaeological Record (2007); "Survival of Biological Evidence on Artifacts: Applying Forensic Techniques at the Boston Saloon," Historical Archaeology (2006); Sidling Up to the Archaeology of Western Saloons: Historical Archaeology Takes on the Wild of the West, World Archaeology (2006); “Archaeology of the Boston Saloon,” African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter (2006); and Saloons in the "Wild" West and Taverns in Ancient Mesopotamia: Explorations Along the Timeline of Public Drinking, in Between Dirt and Discussion (2006).

Her recent archaeological field and lab research (2003-2006) has focused on the encampments of the ill-fated Donner Party (www.anthro.umt.edu/donner). While a book and articles related to the Donner research are forthcoming, it is possible to get a preview of this research in the New Yorker (April 24, 2006). Dr. Dixon is currently developing student-oriented multidisciplinary archaeological research at the mining ghost town of Coloma, Montana and at an isolated Chinese mining communities in western Montana; she is mentoring Ph.D., M.A., and Undergraduate students, who are working at these sites while they earn their degrees. Her other research interests and papers focus on the archaeology of western boomtowns, historic landscapes, extractive industries, forensic applications, and marginalized groups in the American West.

Dixon also serves as the Society for Historical Archaeology's Website Editor (www.sha.org) and works with the Montana State Historic Preservation Office (http://www.his.state.mt.us/shpo/default.asp) to manage Montana's Archaeological Records.

Courses

Anthropology 252 Archaeological Wonders of the World http://www.cas.umt.edu/departments/anthropology/courses/anth252/default.htm

Anthropology 395 The Archaeology and Anthropology of Olduvai Gorge http://www.cas.umt.edu/anthro/courses/olduvai/default.htm

Anthropology 455 Artifact Analysis

http://www.cas.umt.edu/anthropology/courses/anth455/

Anthropology 466 Archaeological Survey Methods http://www.anthro.umt.edu/notes/466/

Anthropology 456 Historical Archaeology http://www.cas.umt.edu/anthro/courses/anth456/default.htm

Anthropology 487 Anthropological Field Experience

Anthropology 495 Landscape Archaeology

Anthropology 495 Archaeological Field School

Coloma Ghost Town Field School: http://www.cas.umt.edu/mtcoloma/default.htm

Terrace Garden Field School and related projects: www.cas.umt.edu/anthro/anth495cim/

Anthropology 503 Graduate Seminar in Cultural Resource Interpretation

Anthropology 551 Graduate Seminar in Historical Archaeology: http://www.cas.umt.edu/departments/anthropology/courses/anth551/

Selected Publications

Forthcoming The Anthropology of Desperation: Exploring the Donner Party’s Alder Creek Camp. Edited volume being prepared for review and publication during 2010 through a cooperative agreement between the Society for Historical Archaeology and the University of Nebraska Press.

In Review “Rock Hearths and Rural Wood Camps of Gold Mountain: Chinese Woodchoppers in the Lake Tahoe Basin.” Chapter in an edited volume entitled Historical Archaeology of the American West. The chapter is co-authored with Carrie Smith and will be published during 2010 by the University of Oklahoma Press.

I2010 “’Men, Women, Children Starving’: Archaeology of the Donner Family Camp.” American Antiquity. Co-authored with S. Novak, G. Robbins, J. Schablitsky, G. R. Scott, and G. Tasa.

2007 “The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws in the Nineteenth-Century American West.” Review in Montana: The Magazine of Western History: 58(3):71-72.

2007 “The Donner Party: An Archaeological Perspective on a Tragedy in the Sierras.” Historical Methods, 40(4):179-181.

2007 “Chinese American Death Rituals: Respecting the Ancestors.” Review, Pacific Historical Review, May 2007:302-303.

2007 “When Fancy Gets The Upper Hand of Fact: Historical Archaeology and Popular Culture in the American West.” SAA Archaeological Record, 7(3):19-25.

2006 “Sidling Up to the Archaeology of Western Saloons: Historical Archaeology Takes on the Wild of the West.” World Archaeology, 38(4):576-585.

2006 “Saloons in the Wild West and Taverns in Ancient Mesopotamia: Explorations Along the Timeline of Public Drinking.” In Between Dirt and Discussion: Methods and Methodology in Historical Archaeology, edited by Steven Archer and Kevin Bartoy, pp. 61-79. Springer [Academic] Press, New York and London.

2006 “Archaeology of the Boston Saloon.” African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter, June 2006. http://www.diaspora.uiuc.edu/news0606/news0606.html#2

2006 “Survival of Biological Evidence on Artifacts: Applying Forensic Techniques at the Boston Saloon.” Historical Archaeology 40(3):20-30.

2006 “Forensic Technology and the Historical Archaeologist.” Invited article that will introduce a thematic issue of Historical Archaeology 40(3):1-7. Co-authored with Julie Schablitsky and Mark Leney.

2005 Boomtown Saloons: Archaeology and History in Virginia City, Nevada. University of Nevada Press, Reno. http://www.anthro.umt.edu/faculty/dixon_flyer.pdf

Specialized Skills

Archaeology; Historical Archaeology; Marginalized Populations