REU Site: Northern Chaco Outliers Project in Archaeology

This project is funded in part by the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences directorate. It has broader scientific and societal impacts in addition to integrating undergraduate research and education. This REU Sites award to the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center supports authentic archaeological research for 10 undergraduate students from underserved populations over the course of seven weeks spanning three years (30 total students).

Students actively engage in research alongside professional mentors within the framework of a long-term research project, the Northern Chaco Outliers Project. Students receive extensive preparation in STEM-based learning objectives that are necessary for future success within the discipline. This program provides students with the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to secure future employment within archaeology and to pursue advanced degrees, emerging as the next generation of professionals, Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, educators, and leaders within the sciences.

Inferences generated about past human behavior are utilized to create a better understanding of the principles that govern culture change worldwide and to address issues relevant to today’s societies, providing critical information to guide future policy making.

The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center initiated the Northern Chaco Outliers Project in 2017 with the goals of addressing important regional questions surrounding the expansion of ancestral communities in the Mesa Verde region, as well as broader anthropological research questions concerning human-environment interactions, the development of inequality/equality, the political role of community centers, and identity formation/dissolution. Although this Site has a regional focus, its results have national and global impacts.

By engaging in scientific research focused on broader anthropological questions, REU students advance and share knowledge of the human past and contribute to cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research surrounding human actions in the past, present, and future.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.