Social Sciences
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Sam SweitzAssistant Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology Department of Social Sciences |
I am an historical archaeologist interested in the impact that the global historical process of industrialization has had on past individuals, societies, and cultures and what the legacy of those changes means to contemporary people. I am an anthropologically trained archaeologist with a multidisciplinary perspective that combines varied interests within archaeological method and theory, with perspectives from other Social Science disciplines in order to create a contextual bridge that enunciates the relationships and connections between historic and living populations.
I earned my Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2004, having done research on the changing realities of Maya social organization in response to the introduction and subsequent adaptation of capitalist oriented hacienda sugar production in Yucatan, Mexico from the 18th through early 20th centuries. Prior to becoming an Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences Department I served as the Archaeology Fellow for the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation at the Colorado Historical Society in 2004-2005 and as a Post-Doctoral Fellow for the Industrial Archaeology Program here at Michigan Tech in 2005-2006.
Since arriving at Michigan Tech I have taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses related to topics within the Social Sciences, including historical and industrial archaeology, cultural anthropology, the social, economic, and political dimensions of haciendas, plantations, and industrial communities in the American West, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and issues related to colonialism, world-systems analysis, and globalization. Through my teaching I have striven to introduce students to a range of multidisciplinary approaches aimed at understanding the relevance of societal formation and of societal change within the context of the increasing global articulations of people and cultures that has characterized the modern era.
At present I am developing a research program focused on the evolution of the sugar industry in Puerto Rico that examines the social and economic changes brought about by participation in worldwide commodity markets. This project combines aspects of anthropological, archaeological, and historical research, incorporating elements of socio-cultural theory, archaeology, archival research, ethnohistory, and oral history into a single multidisciplinary program of research designed to study the trajectory and impact of the sugar industry on the people of Puerto Rico. Current research has focused on the social and economic evolution of the former company town of Central Aguirre on the south central coast of the island, with the goal of understanding the meaning of the industrial heritage of this place from a historical perspective and in terms of the meaning industrial heritage has to contemporary community members.
Courses Taught
SS2100 – World Peoples and Environments
SS2200 – Prehistory and Archaeology
SS3260 – Latin American Culture and History
SS4210 – Global Change Since 1400
SS4220 – Method and Theory in Archaeology
SS4990 – Directed Study in Anthropology (Senior Thesis Direction)
SS5502 – Graduate Proseminar III: Historical Archaeology
SS6500 – Graduate Directed Readings (various topics)
UN1002 – World Cultures