Archaeologist and Museum Curator to Speak at UW March 9

Steve Nash, senior curator of archaeology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, will discuss cultural repatriation and museums Thursday, March 9, at the University of Wyoming Art Museum.

Nash will present “Why WE Repatriate: 16 Years of Restorative Justice at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science” at 5:30 p.m. He will be joined by Nicole Crawford, director and chief curator at the UW Art Museum, and Darrell Jackson, a UW professor of law. Crawford and Jackson lead the “Stealing Culture" project that interrogates the intersection of criminal law and museum collections. A reception will follow.

Nash, who also serves as director of the Department of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, led a successful, decade-long effort to repatriate sacred vigango grave posts in the museum’s collection to the Mijikenda of Kenya.

As an archaeologist, Nash studies the ancient Mogollon culture of west-central New Mexico and specializes in dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating. He has conducted archaeological research all over the world, including at Neanderthal sites in France and in the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park.

As a museum curator, Nash facilitates research on the museum’s anthropology and archaeology collections, including the Navajo textiles, Indian peace medals and Paleoindian archaeology collections. In 2016, he successfully collaborated with the Moscow Kremlin Museum on a first-of-its-kind exhibition on the works of Russian sculptor Vasily Konovalenko.

He has written and edited seven books and dozens of journal articles on a wide variety of topics. He also is a columnist for the award-winning online magazine SAPIENS, which seeks to present anthropology to the public. Additionally, he provides public lectures on topics in anthropology and archaeology.

For more information, call Will Bowling, education and public programs coordinator at the UW Art Museum, at (307) 766-3496 or email wbowling@uwyo.edu.