HELLO, I'M
Daniela
Anthropological Archaeologist & Scholar-Educator of the Ancient Andes
Daniela Maria Raillard Arias
she | her | hers | ella | elle
Incoming Assistant Professor
PhD Candidate
Master of Arts
Honours Bachelor of Arts
(with High Distinction)
About
ME
I am an archaeologist, PhD candidate & incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Reed College specializing in the histories and cultures of the pre-colonial Andes in South America. My research involves landscape, ecology, and community-engagement. I have over a decade of experience in archaeology, I am trilingual, and I am dedicated to building equitable futures in my field.
I acknowledge and celebrate my distant Andean ancestry, but I do not hold a lived experience as an Indigenous person.
MY BACKGROUND
From a young age, I've always wanted to learn more about Andean history, a curiosity sparked by my mother's stories and traditions from the Gualivá countryside in Colombia. I grew up across northern Canada (traditional territories of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council, Kwanlin Dün, Gwich’in, Inuvialuit and Métis), where connecting with the land is the way of life. My father, a Swiss-German biologist and mountaineer, also fostered an appreciation for the environment. These experiences shaped my interests in Andean archaeology.
Education
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
2021
PhD Candidate
Northwestern University, Department of Anthropology
Dissertation Proposal: Ancestral Monuments and Community Resilience During Periods of Ecological and Social Crisis in the Chachapoya Region, Peru
GPA: 3.959
2019
Master of Arts
Northwestern University, Department of Anthropology
Thesis: To Know the Dead: The production of mortuary landscapes through movement in the Chachapoya region, Peru
2016
Honours Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction
University of Toronto, Woodsworth College, St. George
Anthropology Major, Archaeology Major, Latin American Studies Minor
GPA: 3.5
2012
Ecole Mathieu-Martin, Secondary School Diploma
International Baccalaureate Certificate
Academic Honours
Experience
WHERE I’VE WORKED
2026 - Present
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
Reed College, Portland, OR
2024 - 2025
Adjunct Professor - Sessional Instructor
Department of Anthropology
Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, CA
2022 - Present
Co-Director & Principal Investigator
Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica MAPA-SACHA
2017 - Present
Graduate Researcher & Teacher's Assistant
Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
2017
Independent Researcher
Amazonas & Huanuco Departments, Peru
2016 - 2018
Assistant Archaeologist
Proyecto Arqueologico Tambillo, Leymebamba, Peru
​
August 2015
Assistant Archaeologist
Lac Leamy Public Excavation
National Capital Commission, Ottawa, Canada
PARTICIPATORY MAPPING
&
LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS
Skills & Languages
WHAT I BRING TO THE TABLE
Teaching & Mentorship
Data Analysis
Writing & Editing
Research Design & Implementation
Project Management
Archaeological Field & Lab Methods
Public & Community Engagement
Communication, Emotional Intuition & Cultural Sensitivity
English
Spanish
French
Awards & Fellowships
WHERE I SHINE
University Fellow
The Graduate School at Northwestern University
2017-2024
$546 472
Grantee
The Graduate School Graduate Research Grant June 2022
$2 985
Grantee
Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) Graduate Summer Research Grants 2019-2022
$2 750
Grantee
The Graduate School Conference Travel Grants
2019, 2023
$1 600
Grantee
LeCron Foster & Friends of Anthropology Research Grant
2018, 2023
$3 000
Grantee
The Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant April 2022
$19 895
Participant
Kaplan Public Humanities Graduate Research Workshop 2021-2022 Cohort
$500
Grantee
Andean Cultures and Histories Working Group Graduate Summer Research Grants 2018, 2022
$750
Grantee
TGS Interdisciplinary Conference Travel Grant
2023
$1 000
Grantee
FAN Research Emergency Fund
2022
$500
Fellow
The Spatial Archaeology Residential and Online Institute (SAROI), at University of Arkansas-Fayetteville CAST
2022-2023 Cohort
$13 100
Graduate Fellow
Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR) 2019-2020 Cohort
$1 500
Mellon Cluster Fellow
Latin American and Caribbean Studies Cluster
2017
$ 2 500
Grantee
Native American and Indigenous Studies Cluster Graduate Student Research Award
2023
$300
Grantee
NU TGS Dependent Care Professional Development & Childcare Grants
$4 000
Teaching Experience
SELECT TESTIMONIALS
"Thank you so much for a great semester. Your class was what we looked forward to week after week. Your passion and talent for teaching is felt by all your students. You made us feel seen, understood, and safe in your classroom."
Student Feedback, ANTH 390 Curanderismo & Shamanism in Latin America (VIU 2025)
"Daniela is one of the best professors I have ever taken. She is thoughtful in her teachings and assignments, compassionate with students, and creates a classroom environment conducive to exploration and understanding. Her lectures are engaging, her assignments are relevant to the course material and the student body, and she makes each topic more personal by adding her own ideas and stories. Students feel comfortable asking questions and she encourages us to make connections with the material and our own lives. Her passion for Anthropology is contagious. She is a phenomenal teacher and I hope to take more courses with the in the future."
Anonymous Student Feedback, ANTH 390 Curanderismo & Shamanism in Latin America (VIU 2025)
"Great instructor and person. I always am excited to go to class and learn from Daniela. She is welcoming, has a great attitude in her classroom, and is available for office hours. I hope that I am able to take another class with Daniela before I graduate!"
Anonymous Student Feedback, ANTH 212 Sociocultural Anthropology (VIU 2025)
"Daniela was an absolutely amazing professor. The assignments were directly related to the course materials with well thought out instructions with very clear expectations. Her feedback was incredibly valuable per each assignment and I felt I was able to continuously grow and do better on each assignment because of this. I absolutely loved the flexibility with the final actually getting to chose what I was most interested in. This made the course and studying anthropology even more successful. Daniela was incredibly compassionate and understanding, and easily reachable."
Anonymous Student Feedback, ANTH 112 Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology (VIU 2024)
"Daniela made herself available, during section and afterwards, and was glad to help us out. She was very enthusiastic and excited to share her personal experiences in the field with us. It really felt like she wanted us to succeed, especially when she'd go above and beyond, offering to help us network if this was a field we wanted to get into. I have never had a TA offer such a useful resource, and I wish more would be like her."
Anonymous Student Feedback, ANTHRO 214 Archeology: Unearthing History (NU 2020)
PAST COURSES
Curanderismo & Shamanism in Latin America
Instructor
VIU
2025
Sociocultural Anthropology
Instructor
VIU
2025
Intro to Sociocultural Anthropology/
Culture & Society
Instructor & TA
VIU & NU
2020, 2024
Archaeology: Unearthing History
TA
NU
2018, 2020
Human Origins
TA & Evaluator
NU
2019, 2020
UPCOMING COURSES
GUEST LECTURES
Ecologies of Ancestors: Tracing Environmental Relationships through Chachapoya Mortuary Architecture
Archaeology of the Central Andes
Harvard University
2023
Fieldwork in Latin America: Stories from the Amazonian Andes, Northeastern Peru
Introduction to Archaeology
Northwestern University
2022
Above-Ground Mortuary Architecture in the Chachapoya Region, Peru
The Chicago Archaeological Society
2022
Heritage, History, and Multivocal Narratives of the Past
Introduction to Archaeology
Northwestern University
2022
​
Affiliations
Incoming Faculty
Anthropology Department
Division of History & Social Sciences
Reed College
Fellow
Department of Anthropology
Northwestern University
Associate
Asociación Comunal de Turismo, Cultura y Medio Ambiente de Leymebamba
Leymembamba Peru
Fellow
The Spatial Archaeology Online and Residential Institute
University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
Fellow
Center for Native American and Indigenous Research
Northwestern University
