Rate My Professor Karin Larkin

Karin Larkin, Ph.D., is an archaeologist and museum professional who serves as Associate Professor and Curator for the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2006, an M.A. in Museum Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1998, and dual B.A. degrees in Art History and Comparative Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1993. With nearly 25 years of experience in archaeological fieldwork and museum practice, Dr. Larkin has conducted excavations in the Southwest United States, Chihuahua Mexico, the Ludlow Massacre site, and the Pikes Peak region. She currently directs the Museum Studies program and serves as Graduate Director for the M.A. in Cultural Heritage and Environmental Studies at UCCS, while teaching a range of courses including Introduction to Archaeology, Archaeology Laboratory Methods, Museums and Meaning, Native Peoples of the Southwest, Exhibit Design and Development, Collections Management, and Field Practicum in Archaeology.

Dr. Larkin's research focuses on the archaeology of the U.S. West and Southwest, emphasizing community collaboration, labor history, health humanities, social interaction and change, and the role of material culture in negotiating social discord. She is co-editor of Communities of Ludlow: Collaborative Stewardship and the Ludlow Centennial Commemoration Commission (University Press of Colorado, 2022) and The Archaeology of Class War: The Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914 (University Press of Colorado, 2009). Her key publications include 'Memorialization and Social Memory at the Ludlow Massacre Site' (International Journal of Historical Archaeology, accepted 2024), 'Chasing the Cure at Cragmor Sanatorium: The Archaeology of a Tuberculosis Sanatorium' with M. Slaughter (Historical Archaeology, 2023), 'The Social Life of Coal Mining' (The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Archaeology, 2022), 'The Power of Collaborative Public Scholarship: Evaluating the Lasting Impacts of the Colorado Coalfield War Archaeology Project' (Public Historian, 2022), 'Decolonizing Ludlow: A Study in Participatory Archaeology' (International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2019), and 'Preparing Students for Compliance Work?' with Michelle Slaughter (Journal of Archaeology and Education, 2021). Through her scholarship, Dr. Larkin contributes significantly to public archaeology and collaborative approaches in historical archaeology.