Event: WEDS TALKS:Trial By Fire, Floods, and Email in the Cotsen: Public Engagement, Public Scholarship, and Making a Case for Archaeology in 2025

ABSTRACT: I became director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology in November of 2023. Since that time, many dramatic things have happened locally, nationally, and globally that have directly impacted our Cotsen community, the discipline of archaeology, and our world at large. During this tumultuous period, I have been engaged in a wide variety of projects related to student research and support, community outreach, and connecting archaeology to contemporary social issues. In addition, I have been actively promoting a book and developing several new projects related to archaeology, migration, displacement, and climate change. In this talk I highlight some of my recent activities as both Director of the Cotsen and the Undocumented Migration Project, a research-arts-education collective aimed at

raising awareness about migration issues globally. I also discuss the importance of public facing social science research, the wonderfulness of education outreach, and the crucial role that archaeology can play in helping us understand our current political-environmental moment. 

BIO: Jason De León is Lloyd E. Cotsen Endowed Chair of Archaeology, Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies, and Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project, a non-profit research, arts, and education collective that seeks to raise awareness about migration issues globally. He is a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and author of the award-winning book "The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail." De Leon's latest book “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling” won the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction.