Troy R. Lovata, Ph.D.

Professor, Honors College, University of New Mexico

Office: Honors College (Anderson East) Room 1064, (505) 277-4211, lovata@unm.edu

Mailing Address: Honors College, MSC06 3890, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87505 USA


Dr. Troy Lovata is a tenured, Full Professor in the University of New Mexico's interdisciplinary Honors College. He is also Faculty in UNM’s Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, Affiliated Faculty in UNM's Department of American Studies, from 2018 to 2020 served as Chair of UNM’s Honors College, and previously served as the Mayoral-appointed Chair of the Albuquerque Arts Board. He was trained as an Anthropologist and Archaeologist (Ph.D., M.A. The University of Texas; B.A. Colorado State University) and much of his work has focused on non-textual forms of presentation, the social role of material culture, and cultural landscapes. Recent research and teaching includes: the examination of monuments and public displays from ancient megaliths to contemporary public art to Hispanic graffiti; mapping and interpreting arborglyphs and culturally modified trees; the archaeology of trails and walking; the study of people and the sense of place in mountain landscapes; and the presentation of the past from comic books and zines to tourist attractions and archaeological hoaxes. He has led research projects in the US Rocky Mountains and Great Plains and Ecuador; and has led and developed study abroad and research courses in Ecuador, China, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and Spain. His books, Inauthentic Archaeologies: Public Uses and Abuses of the Past and, with Elizabeth Olton, Understanding Graffiti: From Prehistory to Present, are available from Routledge (formerly Left Coast Press).

Contact Dr. Lovata for a current course syllabus. Courses taught at UNM include:

HNRS 1120 The Legacy of Exploration: Explorers of Mountains

UHON 204 Privileging the Past

UHON 204 The Legacy of Ancient Technology

UHON 299/399/499 Independent Study

UHON 301 Artifact and Image

UHON 301 Field Study: Marking the Dead

UHON 302 The Anthropology of Place

UHON 302 Route 66: The Interactions of Landscape and Culture Along the Mother Road

UHON 401 The Archaeology of Trails

UHON 402 The Archaeology of Walking

TRL 6/20, Illium fuit.