About Dr. Wesson

I am an archaeological anthropologist with specific research interests in social complexity, households,  Marxist Anthropology, economic anthropology, and  social agency.  My field research addresses Native American societies of the Southeast, during the Mississippian, Protohistoric, and Historic periods.


Mini C.V.


  

EDUCATION


Ph.D. in Anthropology, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1997)


M.A. in Anthropology, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1994)


B.S. in Anthropology, Auburn University (1991)


B.A. in Architecture and Design, Auburn University (1990)

PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS


2004-date  Associate Professor, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago


1999-2004  Assistant Professor, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago


1999-date  Adjunct Curator, Field Museum of Natural History


1996-1999  Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Books

2004  Historical Dictionary of Early North America. Scarecrow Press.

2002 Between Contacts and Colonies: Protohistoric Archaeology in the Southeastern United States, senior editor with Mark A. Rees. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

In press  Households and Hegemony: Early Creek Prestige Goods, Symbolic Capital, and Social Power . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

In prep.  Creek Sacred Landscapes: Place and Meaning in Southeastern North America . Critical Perspectives on Identity, Memory and the Built Environment Series, Routledge, New York.                          

Journal Articles

2001  A Spaghetti Style Gorget from the Jere Shine Site (1MT6), Montgomery County, Alabama. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 47:132-152. (Wesson, Wall and Chase)

1999   Chiefly Power, Household Production, and Food Storage in Southeastern North America. World Archaeology 31:145-164.

 

In review  Coming of Age in the Southeast: The Place of Theory in Southeastern Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research .      

 

In prep  Of Gods and Gorgets: The Archaeology of Social Alliance Formation in southeastern North America. American Antiquity . (Wesson and Wall)

 

In prep  Archaeological Investigations at the Doughnut Mound, Elmore County, Alabama (1EE99). Journal of Field Archaeology .

 

In prep  De Soto Never Slept Here! Protohistoric Archaeology and the Popular Imagination. Ethnohistory .

 

In prep  Secret Agents of Change: The Role of Creek Women in Historic Creek Culture Change.   Journal of Material Culture .

 

Book Chapters

2002   Protohistory and Archaeology: An Overview. In Between Contacts and Colonists: Protohistoric Archaeology in the Southeastern United States , edited by C.B. Wesson and M.A. Rees. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. (senior author with M.A. Rees)

2002   The Prehistoric-Historic Transition: Prestige Goods, Symbolic Capital, and Social Power in Southeastern North America. In Between Contacts and Colonists: Protohistoric Archaeology in the Southeastern United States , edited by C.B. Wesson and M.A. Rees. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

2001   Creek and Pre-Creek Revisited.   The Archaeology of Resistant Traditions , edited by Timothy R. Pauketat, pp. 94-106. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.

2001   The Origin of Maize. In Chata Anompa: Choctaw Language and Culture , edited by M. Haag and H. Willis, pp. 258-260. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

2001   Houses and Public Buildings. In Chata Anompa: Choctaw Language and Culture , edited by M. Haag and H. Willis, pp. 267-271. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

2001   European Contact and Trade. In Chata Anompa: Choctaw Language and Culture , edited by M. Haag and H. Willis, pp. 272-275. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

1998   Mississippian Sacred Landscapes: The View from Alabama. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces: Searching for an Architectural Grammar , edited by R.B. Lewis and C.S. Stout, pp. 93-122. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

1998   The Design of Mississippian Towns. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces: Searching for an Architectural Grammar , edited by R.B. Lewis and C.S. Stout, pp. 1-21. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. (with R.B. Lewis and C.S. Stout)

Book Reviews

2003   “Studies in Culture Contact: Interaction, Culture Change, and Archaeology.” Florida Anthropologist 56.

2003   “Etowah: The Political History of a Chiefdom Capital.” Journal of Alabama Archaeology 49.

2001   “Method and Theory in American Archaeology.” Journal of Alabama Archaeology 47:154-156.

2001   “Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate.” American Anthropologist .

2000   “Measuring the Flow of Time: The Works of James A. Ford.” Arkansas Review .

1999  "James A. Ford and the Growth of Americanist Archaeology." Arkansas Review.