The Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies
The center supports multiple and varied programs that bridge the worlds of academia and the wider community. These interdisciplinary programs include sponsorship of public lectures, museum programs for the public, and community exchange through workshops, projects, and collaborations. Program subjects include indigenous material culture, oral history, environment and climate change, education, food, and health.
The Ortiz Center was founded as a collaborative endeavor between the Department of Anthropology and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico for the purpose of academic outreach within and beyond the campus environment. The center is named for the late UNM anthropology professor, MacArthur fellow, and native of Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo), Alfonso Ortiz. In keeping with Dr. Ortiz’s vision, the center strives to make academic knowledge relevant, useful, and accountable to the university and the community at large, as well as to enhance, inform, and support community scholars, artists, writers, policy makers, and researchers whose work is relevant to the study of human life and experience. The Ortiz Center thus seeks to serve as a site and resource for the pursuit of knowledge through inclusive dialogue, exchange, and innovation.
