Join us as PBS “History Detectives” host Dr. Eduardo Pagan investigates the mystery behind an unusual Navajo rug. The story takes us to meet a Navajo medicine man and a traditional Navajo weaver in Crownpoint, New Mexico — a place long considered the center of Navajo weaving. Did the weaver violate a taboo to create the rug? A textile historian helps us uncover who may have been behind this controversial design.
Eduardo Pagán is the Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History and Associate Dean of Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University’s West Valley campus. He was born and raised in the Phoenix area and began his college career at Mesa Community College. He received a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University, a master’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a master’s degree and doctorate from Princeton University in U.S. history.
At Arizona State University, he has served as a vice provost, associate dean, department chair, president of the University Senate, president of the West campus Faculty Senate, and as the Faculty Council chair for the Arizona Board of Regents. Before returning to ASU, Pagán served as an assistant dean of students at Princeton, a faculty member at Williams College, and a senior program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. He has held an NEH Fellowship and was a postdoctoral fellow at Wesleyan University and at the University of California, San Diego.
Pagán was one of the hosts of “History Detectives” (PBS), a historical consultant with American Experience (PBS), and has appeared in national and international documentaries and television shows. He has served as a panelist for the Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Arizona Humanities Council, and as a committee member for the Organization of American Historians, and as a judge for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
