Assistant Professor
Affiliations
BU American & New England Studies Program
Areas of Expertise
Indigenous archaeology; Southwestern archaeology; ethnoarchaeology; landscape archaeology; colonialism; pastoralism & mobility; subsistence & foodways; GIS & remote sensing; low-impact field methods
View Professor Campbell’s CV – February 2025
About
Wade Campbell is a Diné (Navajo) historical archaeologist whose research examines the relationships between Diné communities and other local groups in the U.S. Southwest from the 17th century to the present day, including the Pueblos, Spanish, and Americans. Wade is engaged with a range of questions related to longer-term patterns of Navajo settlement and economic activity across the greater Four Corners region, with a particular focus on incipient Indigenous pastoralism and related shifts in land-use, social organization, & diet/subsistence practices. Wade has conducted fieldwork (predominantly survey-based projects) in the U.S. Southwest, northwestern Mexico, Nicaragua, southern Louisiana, Peru, South Africa, and Mali. He also maintains interests in a wide array of broader issues including the practice of Indigenous archaeology, sub-Saharan African archaeology; cultural resource management, and Native American higher education.
Selected Publications
- Campbell, Wade, 2022, “The Diné History of Chaco Canyon” Archaeology of the Southwest Preservation Archaeology Blog.
- Campbell, Wade. 2021 “Na’nilkad bee na’niltin – Learning from Herding: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Historic Pastoralism on the Navajo Nation.” Kiva 87(3): 295-315.
- Campbell, Wade, Kerry F. Thompson, and Richard M. Begay. 2021 “Naasgo: Moving Forward – Diné Archaeology in the Twenty-First Century.” Kiva 87(3): 253-267.
- Campbell, Wade, Sadie L. Weber, Elizabeth Dresser-Kluchman, Timothy D. Wilcox, and Alex Wesson. 2025. “Microbotanical starch analysis as a tool for Indigenous foodways research: An early Navajo case study from the US Southwest.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61: 104896. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104896
Courses
- AN/AR 283: North American Archaeology
- AN/AR 369: Indigenous Archaeology
- AN/AR 508: Landscape Archaeology
- AN 793/AR 893: World Archaeology