Haeden E. Stewart

I am an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. My research focuses on the long-term social and ecological effects of industrialization and industrial waste. In particular, I am interested in using archaeological methods to explore the histories of landscapes and people who are formed and deformed by industrial processes, with a focus on western North America. More broadly, I am committed to using the methods of archaeology to study contemporary social issues—from environmental degradation, to migration, to settler colonialism.

I earned my PhD (2019) and MA (2011) in Anthropology at the University of Chicago and a BA in Archaeology at the University of Toronto (2009). My recently published book Revenant Waste (University Press of Florida 2026), traces the long term social and ecological effects of industrial waste across a century in one of Canada’s first industrial sites. My current research project is the Ruby Archaeological Project which explores the history of industrial mining in Southern Arizona. I have done archaeological fieldwork in British Columbia, Alberta, Arizona, Mexico, Senegal, Peru, and Israel/Palestine.

I am currently accepting graduate students and would be particularly interested in working with students interested in archaeology of the contemporary, the Anthropocene, and political ecology.