Emily Van Alst

Biography

Director of the The Indigenous Knowledge and Image Lab

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Co-editor of the Indigenous Archaeology Methods and Practice Book Series with the University of New Mexico Press

Education

PhD, Indiana University

Research Interests

Indigenous archeology, rock art, gender, ethics, ontology, community-based research, landscape, traditional ecological knowledge, ethnobotany, Native American art, Northern Plains of the United States

Affiliations

• Affiliate Faculty, Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Affiliate Faculty, Center for Native American Research and Collaboration

Current Research

I am an Indigenous archaeologist (enrolled member, Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians) focused on Indigenous women’s relationships to rock art in the Northwest Plains. I am broadly interested in reclaiming cultural heritage with, by, and for Indigenous and descendent communities.

I have done community-based archaeological fieldwork in Spain, Peru, and Japan, as well as in the United States, including Alaska, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Indiana.

My current research is focused on Lakota women’s relationship to rock art, and how those images are related to cultural and environmental landscapes, with a particular interest in images related to elk (Cervus canadensis). Taking a diachronic approach, my research connects rock art images created in the past to contemporary landscapes and ceremonies in the present. My work is grounded in methods of Indigenous archaeology and community-based research practices. Additionally, I utilize ethnographic interviews, cultural mapping, ethnobotanical and TEK methods, and photography. I am also passionate about contemporary Native American art (beadwork), activism, and decolonization efforts within anthropology.

Courses

• ANTH 101: Introduction to Anthropology
• ANTH 201: Art and Society
• ANTH 230: Archaeological Methods and Interpretation
• ANTH 390: History of Anthropological Thought
• ANTH 591: Indigenous Research Methods and Knowledge

Selected Publications

• 2026 Van Alst, Emily C. Beholding through Being: Understanding the Phenomenal Agency of Indigenous-Made Imagery. World Art 16 (2): 293–311. doi:10.1080/21500894.2025.2606402.
• 2026 Linea Sundstrom and Van Alst, Emily C. Toward Decolonizing North American Rock Art Research: It Takes a Revolution in World Archaeology. Doi: doi:10.1080/00438243.2026.2614531
• 2026 Van Alst, Emily C. “Indigenous Research Methodologies.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford University Press, 2018—. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.678.
• 2025 Acebo, Nate, Agbe-Davies, Anna, Camp, Stacey, Campbell, Wade, Cipolla, Craig, Gonzalez-Tenant, Edward, Jones, Alexandra, McDavid, Carol, Montgomery, Lindsay, Mrozowski, Stephen, Odewale, Alicia, Van Alst, Emily C. White, William.  “Questions Worth Asking: Historical Archaeology and Calls for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Restitution” in American Antiquity. doi:10.1017/aaq.2024.88
• 2024 Van Alst, Emily C. and Carlton Q. Gover. “Indigenizing Archaeology: Applying Theory into Practice”
• 2024 Van Alst, Emily C. More than art, other than human: Recognizing rock art as Indigenous knowledge in Archaeological Review from Cambridge.
• 2023 Van Alst, Emily C. and Pyburn, K. Anne. Ethics versus Ethical Codes in The Oxford Handbook of Global Indigenous Archaeologies. Oxford University Press.
• 2023 Van Alst, Emily C. (Re)writing and (Re)beading: Understanding Indigenous Women’s Roles in the Creation of Indigenous Futurisms in The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms. Routledge, New York.