Departmental News

Posted:  May 06, 2021 - 10:00am

Jacque Kocer, Archaeology doctoral candiate, has been awarded the first Bertha Parker Cody Award for Native American Women by the Society for American Archaeology. The award will help fund completion of Jacque's dissertation examining how Gallina potters learned and shared knowledge and technology in the past. Funding for the award comes from the Autry Museum of the American West. An online awards ceremony will be held in early May.

Jacque's dissertation research involves the study of cultural identity through ceramic production practices examining how potters learned and shared knowledge and technology in the past. She studies the archaeologically defined group called Gallina for her dissertation research. The Gallina people occupied the highlands about 70 km north and east of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico between about A.D.1100-1300. They created and used tools and ceramic containers distinct to the region at the time, some with characteristics of possible Plains or Great Basin influence.  She will use the funds from the Bertha Parker Cody Award for Native  American Women to help complete her dissertation. Upon graduation, she plans to teach at a tribal college and run her non-profit company, the Gallina Research Institute for Indigenous Technology (GRIIT). GRIIT is an archaeological research program collaborating with Indigenous communities and will offer an archaeological field school for Native American students.