Leslie Van Gelder

Leslie Van Gelder (born January 27, 1969) is an American archaeologist, writer, and educator whose primary work involves the study of Paleolithic Finger Flutings in Rouffignac Cave and Gargas Cave in Southern France.

Working with her husband, the late archaeologist and theologian Kevin J. Sharpe, she spent 10 years developing methodologies to study finger flutings. Their work, building on the internal analysis concepts established by Alexander Marshack, was the first to be able to establish unique identities of cave artists through the study of individual hands and the application of 2D:4D finger studies. Their work on finger flutings was the first to show symbolic behavior by children in the Paleolithic through the creation of tectiforms in Rouffignac. Later work showed the role of women and children in the creation of cave art in Rouffignac. Their application of Zipf's Law from communications theory also gave the first replicable methodology for determining whether or not fluted panels represented purposeful communication or a proto form of writing. Today Van Gelder continues to research in Rouffignac and Gargas caves and lectures internationally. Her current research focuses on the role of children in both caves. She is a Program Director at Walden University's Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership.

Biography
Van Gelder was born in 1969 in Manhattan. As daughter of American Museum of Natural History curator Richard Van Gelder, she spent periods of her childhood involved in field work with him in East Africa and in the U.S. National Parks. From 1985–1989 she worked for the Quebec-Labrador Foundation teaching environmental education in outport communities in eastern Canada. Later she taught high school in northern New Jersey and left in 1998 to pursue a PhD in Place Studies at the Union Institute and University for which she was the recipient of the Sussman Award. Her work in Place Studies appeared in a number of journals including the Journal of Implicit Religion, Nature in Story and Legend, Green Letters, as well as within the monograph Weaving a Way Home: A Personal Journey of Place and Story published by the University of Michigan Press 2008.

She is the facilitator of the Roundstone Conversation on Place and Story which has, since 2004, annually brought together writers on the subject of Place and Story to the home of writer cartographer Tim Robinson. Past attendees have included Joseph Meeker, Ron Engel, Patrick Curry, John Elder, Moya Cannon, Patricia Monaghan, Nuala O'Faolin among others.

She was married to archaeologist and theologian, Kevin Sharpe until his death in 2008. She lives in the Rees Valley of New Zealand near the community of Glenorchy.

Family
She is the widow of Kevin Sharpe. Richard Van Gelder, curator of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History, was her father. Lawrence Van Gelder, her uncle, was a senior editor at The New York Times until his retirement in 2008. Her brother, Gordon Van Gelder, is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction editor. Her brother Russell Van Gelder is chairman of ophthalmology at University of Washington.