Stephen J. Langdon

PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT CHAIR

PhD, 1977, Anthropology
Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Office: PSB 102-H
Phone: 907 786-6848
E-mail: sjlangdon@uaa.alaska.edu

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Recipient of 2012 Edith R. Bullock Prize for Excellence

BACKGROUND
I began teaching at UAA in 1976. Through my career I have conducted a wide variety of research projects throughout Alaska on both basic and applied topics. My primary focus has been on southeast Alaska where I have worked on topics related to precontact, historic and contemporary fisheries of the Tlingit and Haida people. Of substantial importance in this regard is research on prehistoric fish trap technologies in the Prince of Wales Archipelago demonstrating their ancestry, transformation, and strategies of harvest. I have also conducted substantial research on subsistence practices of Alaska Natives, fisheries policies and their impacts on Alaska Natives, and on a variety of topics on ethnohistoric and contemporary social and cultural dimensions of Alaska Native life. I have served on two National Academy of Science review boards, most recently (1999) examining the Community Development Quota (CDQ) program established for Bering Sea coastal villagers. My broad personal and research experiences have provided me with background for The Native People of Alaska (4th edition, 2002), a basic introduction to Alaska Native life.

CURRENT RESEARCH

In 2003, I began work on traditional ecological knowledge and use of salmon by Tlingit people; there is a published report and several articles on the results of that research.
In 2006, work on traditional ecological knowledge and use of salmon by Kaigani Haida people of southeast Alaska was undertaken and a report completed on those findings. Papers and articles from that research are in preparation.
In 2007, research was conducted on the implementation and impacts of the Community Quota Entity program, which allows for community ownership of fisheries quota, on small villages in the Gulf of Alaska. Several publications are available on that research.
In 2008, research was undertaken on the customary trade of sockeye salmon by Tlingit and Haida people in southeast Alaska. The project is ongoing.
In 2009, research on the economic valuation of subsistence activity of Diomede Islanders was undertaken using a production basis model but addressing the entirety of activities that are a part of subsistence. The research is ongoing.
In 2011, research will be undertaken in the summer on the traditional ecological knowledge and use of sockeye salmon on the Chilkat River.

In the photo at right, Dr. Langdon works with Tlingit elder consultant Clara Peratrovitch of Klawock documenting the shame blanket in the background which she inherited from her mother.