My research focuses on the Southwest United States, specifically the prehispanic Pueblos of the Four Corners region. Topically, I am interested in the ways social groups negotiate their identities through relationships to their spatial setting, incorporating traditional architectural approaches with studies of depositional practices and room decommissioning. I have conducted fieldwork in Chaco Canyon, northeastern Arizona, and southwestern Colorado. In addition to conducting fieldwork, I utilize archival records and museum collections in my research frequently, and I am particularly interested in the history of archaeology and the creation of digital archives stemming from the start of my archaeological career working for the Chaco Research Archive (chacoarchive.org). Prior to joining the faculty at Boulder, I was a pre-doctoral researcher for the Chaco Water Project at the University of Cincinnati and a supervisory archaeologist for the Northern Chaco Outliers Project at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.
Selected Publications:
- 2019. Fladd, Samantha G. and Claire S. Barker. Miniature in Everything but Meaning: A Contextual Analysis of Miniature Vessels at Homol’ovi I. American Antiquity 84(1):107–126. DOI:10.1017/aaq.2018.79.
- 2019. Fladd, Samantha G., Claire S. Barker, E. Charles Adams, Dwight C. Honyouti, and Saul L. Hedquist. To and From Hopi: Negotiating identity through migration, coalescence, and closure at the Homol’ovi Settlement. In The Continuous Path: Pueblo Movement and the Archaeology of Becoming edited by Samuel Duwe and Robert Preucel. University of Arizona Press: Tucson.
- 2018. Bishop, Katelyn J. and Samantha G. Fladd. Ritual Fauna and Social Organization at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon. Kiva 84(3):293–316. DOI: 10.1080/00231940.2018.1489623. Winner of the Julian D. Hayden Student Paper Competition.
- 2018. McCool, Jon-Paul P., Samantha G. Fladd, Vernon L. Scarborough, Stephen Plog, Nicholas P. Dunning, Lewis A. Owen, Adam S. Watson, Katelyn J. Bishop, Brooke E. Crowley, Elizabeth A. Haussner, Kenneth B. Tankersley, David Lentz, Christopher Carr, and Jessica L. Thress. Soil Salinity in Discussions of Agricultural Feasibility for Ancient Civilizations: A Critical Review of the Data and Debate at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. PLoS ONE 13(6):e0198290. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198290
- 2018. Scarborough, Vernon L., Samantha G. Fladd, Nicolas P. Dunning, Stephen Plog, Lewis A. Owen, Christopher Carr, Kenneth B. Tankersley, Jon-Paul McCool, Adam S. Watson, Elizabeth A. Haussner, Brooke Crowley, Katelyn J. Bishop, David L. Lentz, and R. Gwinn Vivian. Water Uncertainty, Agricultural Canals, and Ritual Predictability at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Antiquity 92(364):870–889. DOI:10.15184/aqy.2018.114
- 2017. Adams, E. Charles and Samantha G. Fladd. Composition and Interpretation of Stratified Deposits in Ancestral Hopi Villages at Homol’ovi. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 9(6):1101–1114.
- 2017. Fladd, Samantha G. Social syntax: An approach to spatial modification through the reworking of space syntax for archaeological applications. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 47:127–138.
Graduate Studies Information
Working with Dr. Fladd
Dr. Fladd is currently working to establish a collaborative project that focuses on the analysis and publication of the Yellow Jacket collections held by the Museum of Natural History. She is also planning future fieldwork in northeastern Arizona and Chaco Canyon.
Dr. Fladd is looking for Graduate Students with the following:
- A focus on Southwest archaeology
- Strong writing skills
- An interest in and willingness to experiment with social theory
*Professor Fladd is not accepting graduate students for Fall 2023
