Department Staff
Angela has been the collections manager of Ethnology and History since 1999, after spending three years in the department working as a Graduate Student and Curatorial Assistant. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Distance Delivery Pilot Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from George Washington University. In 2023, Angela earned her Ph.D. in Museology and Northern History: Interdisciplinary Studies through UAF's department of Arctic and Northern Studies. Her dissertation focused on the past, present, and future of Alaska's museums.
Angela strives to facilitate access to the museum's collections, through the online database Arctos, and through direct physical access to the collections the museum cares for on behalf of the residents of Alaska. She welcomes questions from the public and seeks out opportunities for supporting cultural heritage projects across Alaska and the circumpolar north.
Angela is a member of several museum and anthropological professional committees and currently serves as the Alaska state representative for the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG).
Student Employees
Summer 2024
Sophie Zhang - B.A. Anthropology; Fire Sciences student
Research Associates & Affiliates (2023-24)
Ellen Carrlee, Ph.D. - Conservator, Alaska State Museum; care and preservation of Alaska objects; Yup'ik relationships of qiluliuryaraq (processing intestine); Juneau, Alaska
Ross Coen, Ph.D. - Alaska historian; editor of Alaska History (peer-reviewed journal of the Alaska Historical Society); Seattle, Washington
Holly Cusack-McVeigh, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Anthropology & Museum Studies, Public Scholar of Collections and Community Curation, Adjunct Associate Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies, Indiana University Indianapolis; Indianapolis, Indiana
Dixie Dayo, M.A. - Dixie Dayo Consulting, Good Grief: Good Medicine for Behavioral Health Therapists; Community Health and Wellness; Fairbanks, Alaska
Allan Hayton, M.A. - Language Revitalization Program Director, Doyon Foundation; Fairbanks, Alaska
Dewey Kk'ołeyo Hoffman, M.Ed. - Ruby Tribal Member; Fairbanks, Alaska
Michael Koskey, Ph.D. - Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies Graduate Programs, UAF; Fairbanks, Alaska
Jason Rogers, Ph.D. - Archaeologist, Lake Clark National Park, NPS; archaeological investigation, wooden boats; maritime history; Anchorage, AK
Nadia Sethi, Ph.D. - A Journey to What Matters Program Director, The CIRI Foundation; Alaska Native art and culture; Anchorage / Homer, AK
Amelia (Amy) Ahnaughuq Topkok, B.F.A., M.A. - BLaST Reporting and Outreach Coordinator (CNSM); Ph.D. graduate student Indigenous Studies (CIS), UAF; Iñupiaq skin-sewing from a Woman's perspective; Fairbanks, Alaska
Sean Asikłuk Topkok, Ph.D. - Director - Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies Graduate Programs, UAF; Fairbanks, Alaska
Christopher B. Wooley, M.A. - Chumis Cultural Resource Services; Alaska history, cultural resources, Alaska archaeology, oil spill response, NAGPRA and repatriation; Big Lake, Alaska
Department History
Former Staff
The Ethnology & History collections have been a key part of the University of Alaska Museum of the North from its inception in 1926. With Otto Geist's first field collecting efforts on St. Lawrence Island and beyond, the material culture of Alaska's Indigenous peoples and non-Native settlers has been of interest to scholars and locals alike. The curation of the ethnology & history objects was originally overseen by people like Froelich Rainey, J.L. Giddings, Ivar Skarland, and Ludwig Rowinski.
Years of Service: 1966-1994
Dinah Larsen, M.A.
Coordinator / Curator
Dinah (Wolfe) Larsen was the longest-term employee of the ethnology and history department at the UA Museum of the North. She received her M.A. at the University of California Los Angeles and used that training to develop many innovative programs at UAMN in collaboration with Alaska Native people across the state. She witnessed the increased professionalization of the museum and authored many articles and exhibits.
Molly Lee, Ph.D.
Curator Emerita
Molly Lee completed her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, under Nelson Graburn. She has spent much of her academic career investigating the basketry of Alaskan Native groups. Though she could probably make a basket if she really had to, her interest is in reconstructing the history of basket traditions and in how cultural change can be inferred from changes in material objects including baskets rather than in construction techniques. She has conducted over 30 years of research, and published extensively on the baleen baskets of the Iñupiaq people of Northern Alaska, the grass baskets of the Yup'ik people of Southwestern Alaska, as well as the basketry of the Tlingit and Alutiiq people of coastal Alaska. Dr. Lee retired from UAF and UAMN in May 2008.