Education
PhD Anthropology, UCLA
BA Anthropology; minor in Museums Studies, Beloit College
Biography
Dr. Colleen Delaney is Professor of Anthropology at CSU Channel Islands. She earned her Ph.D and MA in archaeological Anthropology from UCLA, and a B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in Museum Studies from Beloit College. As an anthropologist she is committed to teaching all students the value of critical thinking, cultural awareness, and cultural understanding in the global world of today. Prior to her arrival as CSU Channel Islands, Dr. Delaney held full time positions at Moorpark College and CSU Fullerton.
Dr. Delaney’s specific archaeological interests focus on human adaptations to the natural and cultural realms. As a broadly trained anthropologist, her research interests are diverse and interdisciplinary. Primary research foci include human adaptations to local natural and cultural world environments, sociocultural interaction and identity, social inequality, emergent complexity, and taphonomic processes/actualistic studies. Dr. Delaney has conducted fieldwork throughout the United States as well as Australia and Germany.
She is currently engaged in research in several areas:
a) documenting both the Chumash (and their ancestors) habitation of Ventura County area, as well as activities post-European colonization. As a part of this, I examine the interaction between interior, coastal and island populations. This research has two foci: the early Holocene and Pleistocene occupations in Ventura County (linked to her Australian experience), with current fieldwork focused on surveys and excavations at archaeological sites located in the vicinity of CSUCI.
b) sociocultural interaction and warfare in the Midwestern region of the United States. In 2011 she and her colleagues undertook test excavations at the Audrey site in the Lower Illinois River valley. This village was occupied for a short period of time ca AD 1050, and may represent a village of colonists from Cahokia, 70 miles to the south.
c) project examines sandstone bowls and mortars to trace prehistoric exchange networks. This project is in collaboration with faculty and students at CSU Northridge.
Dr. Delaney previously published under the surname Delaney-Rivera.
When not teaching, Dr. Delaney enjoys reading fantasy and mystery books, hiking, traveling, and spending time her children.
Representative Courses Taught
- ANTH 104 Introduction to Bioanthropology
- ANTH 105 Introduction to Archaeology
- ANTH 445 The Sea Coast through Time
- ANTH 486 Experimental Archaeology