SOUTHWEST SEMINARS PRESENTS
DECEMBER VOICES 2023

MONDAYS AT 6 PM AT HOTEL SANTA FE
LECTURES – 50 MONDAYS A YEAR
IMAGE  BY DON USNER

A PUBLIC PROGRAM GRACIOUSLY ASSISTED BY HOTEL SANTA FE, A PICURIS PUEBLO ENTERPRISE
TO HONOR AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE WORK OF NEW MEXICO ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER

December 4 Dr. Mark S. Aldenderfer
Archaeologist and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California-Merced; Editor, Co-Editor or Author of 10 books, including Montagne Foragers; Editor, Current Anthropology; Co-Editor, Science Advances; 100 articles & book chapters in anthropological journals. Mark studies comparative analysis of high altitude cultural and biological adaptations from an archaeological perspective while working on the 3 high elevation plateaus on Earth. Ongoing interdisciplinary team research (including specialists in ancient DNA, human genomics, protoeomics, textile/fiber & metallurgical analysts, historians, Tibetologists, & alpinists) aims to discover when the High Himalayas were first occupied by humans, a project in part supported by National Geographic & featured in the pages of its magazine; His team’s documentary films: ‘Cave People of the Himalayas’, ‘Secrets of the Sky Tombs’, & ‘Secrets of the Sky Caves’.
Rethinking Early Peopling of the World’s High Plateaus: The Andes, Tibet, & Ethiopia

December 11 Don J. Usner
Photographer and Author. Photo shows: Valles Caldera, Randall Davey National Audubon Center; Reverence: Photographs of the Valles Caldera, New Mexico Museum of Natural History; Co-author (w/W. deBuys), Valles Caldera: A New Vision for New Mexico’s National Preserve; (w/K. Ware & D. Kosharek), Orale! Lowrider: Custom Made in New Mexico and Author: Chasing Dichos Through Chimayo, Sabino’s Map: Life in Chimayo’s Old Plaza, Benigna’s Chimayo: Cuentos from the Old Plaza,  The Natural History of Big Sur, ‘Hispano Plazas: A Perspective from a Chimayo Expatriate’, in The Plazas of New Mexico; ‘Saving History: Ortega Papers Trace Family’s Three Hundred Years in Chimayo’, ‘Machine Dreams: A Low, Slow Journey from Pachuco to Priceless’, all in El Palacio; ‘Dichos: Guideposts for Good Character-Old Folk Sayings in Spanish’ in Taos News; ‘The Long & Winding Ditch’ in Bienvenidos; ‘The Feather & the Cellphone’, ‘Lowriders & Riding High’, both in New Mexico Magazine.
Valles Caldera: Visions of New Mexico’s National Preserve

December 18: Dr. Sara Dant
SPECIAL  NOTE: Santa Fe Woman’s Club, 1616 Old Pecos Trail
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor & Chair of History, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Weber State University; Advisor/interviewee: Ken Burns documentary, ‘The American Buffalo’; Author, Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West; Co-Author (w/H. Rothman), Encyclopedia of American National Parks; Chapter Author: ‘Selling and Saving Utah, 1845-Present’, in Utah History (forthcoming); ‘The “Lion of the Lord” and the Land: Brigham Young’s Environmental Ethic’, in The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden: Essays in Mormon Environmental History, (J. Rogers & M. Godfrey, eds.); ‘Going With the Flow: Navigating to Stream Access Consensus’ in Desert Water: The Future of Utah’s Water Resources. She has authored several prize-winning articles on western environmental politics as well as a precedent-setting expert witness report & testimony on stream navigability’. Active in conservation programs in U.S. environmental politics emphasizing consensus & bipartisanism.
Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West

December 25 and January 1: Happy Holidays! (No programs)

$20 AT THE DOOR – OR – $55 TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE SERIES OF 3 LECTURES