The University of Arizona Press

July 21, 2026

Theodore H. Fleming, author of Birds, Bats, and Blooms: The Coevolution of Vertebrate Pollinators and Their Plants, spoke as part of the Tumamoc Author Series with Elise Gordes, director of the Desert Laboratory at Tumamoc Hill.

In this Southwest Center video of the event, Fleming discusses the history of pollination and pollination ecology, focusing on insects as well as the roles of other pollinators such as hummingbirds and bats. The talk explains why pollinators and flowers exist, and discusses the context for the evolution of pollination species. The book also discusses the Sonoran Desert’s specific pollination environment.

When discussing the Sonoran Desert, Fleming says, “So we’re in a really unique kind of environment here in which there are resources, flower resources for hummingbirds and nectar feeding bats. And that’s not the case in any other desert in the world.”

Watch the video here.

The event was presented by Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, The University of Arizona Press, and The Southwest Center.

Theodore H. Fleming is a professor emeritus of biology at the University of Miami. He spent thirty-nine years in academia at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and the University of Miami, teaching ecology courses and conducting research on tropical rodent populations and plant-visiting bats and their food plants in Panama, Costa Rica, Australia, Mexico, and Arizona. He lives in Tucson.

July 14, 2026

Patricia A. Gilman, coauthor of Mimbres Far From the Heartland: Identity at the Powers Ranch Site of East-Central Arizona, spoke as part of the Tumamoc Author Series.

In this Southwest Center video of the event, Gilman discusses the Mimbres culture and Powers Ranch site on the Gila River near Duncan, Arizona. The talk discusses the difference between Mimbres in the heartland (the Mimbres Valley) versus Mimbres outside the heartland, and why these communities aren’t peripheral, but their own local versions.

Reflecting on the themes of identity and archaeology, Gilman said, “One of the problems that I think we run into in cultural identity with prehistoric cultures. . . is that we identify them by their material culture. So our branch, the decorated wear is pretty much all embrace pottery. . . So, yes, we are in a territory where most of the people are making that pottery, but is that how they would actually identify themselves? So that was [what] one of our research questions was, are these people Mimbres?”

Watch the video here.

The event was presented by Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, The University of Arizona Press, and The Southwest Center.

Patricia A. Gilman has done archaeological research in the Mimbres region of New Mexico and Arizona for more than fifty years. One of her research interests is the role of small Mimbres Classic sites beyond the Mimbres Valley. She co-authored Mimbres Life and Society: The Mattocks Site of Southwestern New Mexico and co-edited Mimbres Society and New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology. Dr. Gilman retired from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma.

July 7, 2026

Joe Watkins, author of Indigenizing Japan: Ainu Past, Present, and Future, spoke as part of the Tumamoc Author Series with Carol J. Ellick, Executive Director of Archaeological and Cultural Education Consultants.

In this Southwest Center video of the event, Watkins discusses his work with the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, Japan. The talk explains the history and archaeology behind the divergence in cultural trajectories between mainland Japan and Hokkaido, and the recent cultural revival following the 2007 recognition of the Ainu as Japan’s Indigenous people.

Watkins explains how Ainu culture developed differently from Japan’s Waijin ethnic majority culture: “On Hokkaido, the climate cannot allow wet rice agriculture, as was developed on the Japanese mainland on Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu in 5000 BC, as seen in the archaeology.  So the Ainu on Hokkaido [and other northern islands] developed in place. So with that archaeological distinction as well as the genetic distinction from the Wajin of the mainland, we start getting the cultural differences, the historical differences, and we still see the expression of genetic differences in many Ainu.”

Watch the video here.

The event was presented by Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, The University of Arizona Press, and The Southwest Center.

Joe E. Watkins, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, currently works as a senior consultant for Archaeological and Cultural Education Consultants (ACE Consultants) and is an affiliated faculty member in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. He was president of the Society for American Archaeology during 2019–2021. His study interests concern the ethical practice of anthropology and anthropology’s relationships with descendant communities and populations on a global scale.

July 9, 2025

Melani Martinez, author of The Molino: A Memoir, spoke with poet Logan Phillips last winter as part of the Tumamoc Author Series. In this Southwest Center video of the event, hear Martinez read a short excerpt from her memoir. She then tells stories of her family, who owned and operated El Rapido restaurant in downtown Tucson. Phillips asked about how she came up with the format of her memoir, and Martinez responded, “I understood what the book could be structurally after having found the character of ‘El Pensamiento’ [the thinker] to help shape the stories. There are two narrative voices: my narrative voice and the other persona is a character called El Pensamiento. To some degree, I needed a conversation to do the book, so he allowed me to converse with him.”

Watch the video here.

The event was presented by Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, The University of Arizona Press, and The Southwest Center.

Melani “Mele” Martinez is a senior lecturer at the University of Arizona, where she teaches writing courses. Her family has lived in the Sonoran Desert for at least nine generations. The Molino weaves together history, culture, and Mexican food traditions, in the story of her family’s life and work in the heart of their downtown eatery, El Rapido. Opened by Martinez’s great-grandfather, Aurelio Perez, in 1933, El Rapido served tamales and burritos to residents and visitors to Tucson’s historic Barrio Presidio for nearly seventy years. For the family, the factory that bound them together was known for the giant corn grinder churning behind the scenes—the molino.