Margaret Nelson

Biography

Margaret Nelson is a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Vice Dean of Barrett, The Honors College at ASU. She has been recognized for her teaching excellence as ASASU Centennial Professor, Parents Association Professor of the Year, and ASU President's Professor. Her teaching addresses critical thinking, research skills and collaboration across traditional academic disciplines. In addition, she includes undergraduate and graduate students in her archaeological research. She has conducted research in the Mimbres region of southwest New Mexico for over 30 years, collaborating for the past 20 years with Dr. Michelle Hegmon. Their work focuses primarily on the Classic to Postclassic transformation. Nelson's 1999 book Mimbres During the 12th Century: Abandonment, Continuity, and Reorganization derives from that research. Her book Mimbres Lives and Landscapes, edited with Hegmon, brings many specialists together in a popular book about archaeology and Mimbres culture. She currently leads an interdisciplinary research team addressing a range of social-ecological issues concerning resilience and sustainability for prehistoric small-scale farmers in the U.S. Southwest (600-1500 CE) and the lessons learned from this research for contemporary issues of resilience and sustainability. Their work has been submitted as a Special Feature for the journal Ecology and Society. Nelson was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2008.

Selected Publications

Spielmann, K.A., M.C. Nelson, M. Peeples, and S. Ingram. 2011. Sustainable small-scale agriculture in semi-arid environments. Ecology and Society 16 (1): 26. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art26/.

Nelson, M.C., M. Hegmon, S. Kulow, M. Peeples, K. Kintigh, and A. Kinzig. 2011. Resisting diversity: A long-term archaeological study. Ecology and Society 16 (1): 25. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art25/.

Nelson, M.C., K. Kintigh, D.R. Abbott, and J.M. Anderies. 2010. The cross-scale interplay between social and biophysical context and the vulnerability of irrigation-dependent societies: Archaeology's long-term perspective. Ecology and Society 15 (3): 31. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss3/art31/.

Nelson, M.C., and M. Hegmon, eds. 2010. Mimbres Lives and Landscapes. School of Advanced Research, Santa Fe.

Schoon, M., C. Fabricius, J. Anderies, and M. Nelson. 2011. Synthesis: Vulnerability, traps, and transformations - long term perspectives from archaeology. Ecology and Society 16 (2): 24. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss2/art24/.