About Dr. Cassman

Curriculum Vitae 2002

Vicki Cassman Ph.D.

Archaeologist & Conservator

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Course offerings include: museum studies, historic preservation, preservation issues, textile analysis, and introductory anthropology.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Name: Vicki Cassman
Office Address:
4505 Maryland Parkway
Box 455012
Las Vegas, NV 89154-5012
Telephone: (702) 895-1881 (office), 895-4823 (fax)
E-mail: cassmanv@unlv.edu
Born: March 2, 1957: Berkeley, CA

EDUCATION

Ph.D. 1997 Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. Archaeology.
Dissertation: A Reconsideration of Prehistoric Ethnicity and Status in Northern Chile: The Textile Evidence.

M.S. 1985 University of Delaware/Winterthur Museum. Art Conservation.
Project: Preliminary Studies for Technical Analyses of a Group of Pre-Columbian
Textiles.

Third-Year Internship: Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palace, Surrey,UK.

M.S. 1984 University of California, Davis. Textile Science.
Thesis: The effect on Color of Accelerated Aging Processes on Mordanted Natural Dyes.

B.A. 1981 University of California, Davis. Art History.

WORK EXPERIENCE

1999 to Present: Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

1998-1999: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

1996-1998: Conservator part-time, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, California.

1986-1991: Visiting Instructor, Textile Conservation Block, University of Delaware/Winterthur Museum Conservation Masters Degree Program. Six intensive weeks each year on site.

1987-1999 Private Conservator, specializing in textiles. Clients have included: Arizona state Museum in Tucson, Arizona State University OCRM in Tempe, De Young Museum of Art in San Francisco, Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museums of New Mexico in Santa Fe, Museums of People and Culture in Provo, National Park Service in Arizona and California, and private collectors.

1985-1987: Assistant Conservator, Arizona Historical Society, Tucson, Arizona.

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

NAGPRA Representative, Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies since 1998.

Conservation Consultant, Kennewick Man Collection Management. Army Corps of Engineer's Curation Team Member. October 1998 to present.

Workshop Coordinator, along with Dr. Nancy Odegaard. Apache Scout Project. Apache and archaeology volunteers were taught essentials of textile conservation and carrying out a community treatment project. Flagstaff, Arizona. August 2001

Board Member, Lied Discovery Children's Museum. September 2000 - present.

Advisory Board Member, Las Vegas Natural History Museum. September 1999-present.

Guest Instructor, Course for museum professionals on Museum Pest Control. June 1998. Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.

Instructor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Anthropology Department. Courses: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Fall 1993 and Museum Studies Fall 1994.

Invited Instructor, USIS sponsored course on New Conservation Strategies for Central America. Antigua Guatemala. January 1993.

Summer Work Projects, sponsored by the Fulbright Commission in 1986 and 1990, and the Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile in 1983 and 1984. Summer collection management courses taught, and archaeological research carried out at the Anthropology Museum of the Universidad de Tarapacá, in Arica, Chile.

Instructor, Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palace, England. Dyeing Technology Course for Masters Degree Students, 1985.

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

Vicki Cassman (In Preparation) Coca Consumption and Labor in The Andes: A Historical Overview. Editors Bill Jankowiak and Dan Bradburd. University of Arizona Press.

Vicki Cassman (2000) Prehistoric Andean Ethnicity and Status: The Textile Evidence. In Beyond Cloth and Cordage, edited by Penny Drooker and Laurie Webster. University of Utah Press. Pp. 253-266.

Needles, H.L, Vicki Cassman, and Martha Collins (1986) Mordanted Natural-Dyed Wool and Silk Fabrics: Light and Burial-Induced Changes in the Color and Tensile Properties of Mordanted Natural Dyed Silk and Wool Textiles. In Historic Textiles and Paper Materials: Conservation and Characterization. Edited by H.L. Needles and H. Zeronian. Washington, D.C. American Chemical Society. Pp. 199-210.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Cassman, Vicki; Kristen Martine; Jennifer Riddle; and Sali Underwood (2001) Neglect of an Obvious Issue: The Storage of Human Remains. CRM Magazine.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/crm/index.htm

Cassman, Vicki and Bernardo Arriaza (2001) Chinchorro Studies: A Historical
Perspective. In Studies on Ancient Mummies and Burial Archaeology proceedings of the II World Congress on Mummy Studies, Colombia, edited by F. Cárdenas-Arroyo and C. Rodríguez-Martín. Fundacion Erigaie and Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. Pp. 37-41.

Cassman, Vicki (2001) Prehistoric Ethnicity and Status Based on Textile Evidence from Arica, Chile. Chungará 32(2) 253-257.

Belmonte, Eliana; Marietta Ortega, Patricia Arévalo, Vicki Cassman, and Larry Cartmell (2001) Presencia de la Hoja de Coca en el Ajuar Funerario de Tres Cementerios del Periodo Tiwanaku: AZ-140, AZ-6 y PLM-3. Chungará 31(1) 125-136.

Cassman, Vicki (2001) Introduction to articles related to the Conservation and Exhibition of Mummies from the III World Congress of Mummy Studies. Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile Chungará 33(1) 3-4.

Oakland, Amy and Vicki Cassman (1995) Andean Tapestry: Structure Informs the Surface. Art Journal 54(2):33-39.

Cassman, Vicki (1989) Simbiosis entre el Museo y la Arqueología. Chungará 23:93-109.

Arriaza, Bernardo and Vicki Cassman (1988) Se Esta Produciendo un Arqueocidio? Chungará 20:69-73.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Cassman, Vicki (in press) Conference review: Museos Construyendo Communidades: Seminario Textiles E Identidades. May 16-18, 2001 La Paz, Bolivia. Ethnographic Conservation Newsletter. International Council on Museums.

Cassman, Vicki (in press) Artifacts Associated With Human Remains. Conference Proceedings. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. B.A.R. series 934 Pp. 57-59.

Trimble, Michael; Nancy Odegaard, Vicki Cassman, and Teresa Militello (in press) Conservation and Rehousing of The Kennewick Remains - Raising The Bar. Conference Proceedings. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. B.A.R. series 934.

Cassman, Vicki, Jennifer Riddle, Kristen Martine and Katherine Demsky (October 2000) UNLV NAGPRA NEWS. Volume 1, Issue 1. Department of Anthropology NAGPRA News for Distribution to Native American Tribes.

Cassman, Vicki (1998) Archaeological Textiles and the Case for Collection Management. Textile Specialty Group Postprints. American Institute for Conservation. Washington, D.C.

Arriaza, Bernardo and Vicki Cassman (1997) South American Mummies. In Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Edited by H. Selaine. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Pp. 750-752.

Cassman, Vicki (1992) Organización del Trabajo de Conservación. In Encuentro Regional de Expertos Sobre Conservación de Textiles Precolombinos. Informe Final. PNUD-UNESCO/Getty Conservation Institute Conference Proceedings Publication. Pp. 197-201

Cassman, Vicki (1992) El Catastro: Primer Paso en la Conservación Preventiva. In Encuentro Regional de Expertos Sobre Conservación de Textiles Precolombinos. Informe Final. PNUD-UNESCO/Getty Conservation Institute Conference Proceedings Publication. Pp. 189-196.

Cassman, Vicki (1990) Natural Dye Research in the South Central Andes. WAAC Newsletter 12(2):2-3. Western Association of Art Conservation. http://sulserver-2.Stanford.edu/waac/wn12/.

Cassman, Vicki (1983) Contributing writer to Saints and Sinners in Master Drawings. Edited by Seymour Howard. Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California.

GRANTS FUNDED

2001 Planning Initiative Award, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas. Collaborative Public Education for Nevada Prehistory.

2001 New Investigator Award, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas. Prehistoric Andean Dye Technologies.

2000 Planning Initiative Award, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas. For UNLV NAGPRA Documentation Project.

1997 Project Director of Getty sponsored program to invite twelve Latin American Conservation professionals to the 1997 American Institute for Conservation annual meeting.

1995 National Park Service NAGPRA Museum Grant to help the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to help the Department of Anthropology meet the 1995 NAGPRA deadline.

1994 Prehistoric Andean Ethnicity, National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant.

1993 Coca Use Among Prehistoric Tiwanaku Period Inhabitants. Co-author with Eliana Belmonte (Project Director) and other researchers. Funded by the Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.

1991 Interdisciplinary Study of Preservation Tactics for the Chinchorro Mummy Collection. Co-author with Luis Briones (Project Director) and other researchers. Funded by the Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.

1989 Tiwanaku Style: A View from the Provinces. Coauthor with Dr. Amy Oakland (Project Director) and Bernardo Arriaza. National Endowment for the Humanities.

1984 Kress Foundation Fellowship and National Museum Act Grant for Textile Conservation Internship at the Textile Conservation Centre, England.

1983 Fulbright University Exchange between the Art Conservation Program of the University of Delaware and the Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile. Co-author with Michele Austin.

REVIEWER FOR:

Journal of the American Institute for Conservation
Chungará (Chilean Journal of Anthropology)
Latin American Antiquity
American Antiquity

Fondecyt/Conicyt (Chilean NSF)
Getty Grant Program
National Geographic Society
Universidad de Tarapacá
Institute for Museum Services

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Anthropological Association
American Association of Museums
American Institute for Conservation (Chair of the Textile Specialty Group 1996-1997)
Chilean Textile Conservation Committee
Society for American Archaeology
Textile Society of America
Western Association of Art Conservators

OTHER LANGUAGES

Spanish and Swedish