Events

Weds, October 24, 2007, 12-2 pm

Sarah Jackson is in the second year of a two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Anthropology Department here at the University of Toronto. Sarah received her Ph.D. in Anthropology/Archaeology in 2005 from Harvard University, where she trained as a Maya archaeologist. She has also been a Junior Fellow in Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, in Washington D.C., and a lecturer at the University of New Hampshire.

Sarah’s work focuses on political hierarchy and concepts of status identity among the Classic Maya, especially within the institutional context of the royal court. Methodologically, she is particularly interested in the intersection of texts and the material record, and has worked to integrate hieroglyphic texts, ethnohistoric documents, and archaeological data in her work. She has conducted excavations at the Classic Maya sites of Copán (Honduras), Piedras Negras (Guatemala), and Cancuén (Guatemala). During her post-doc she has been working on writing a book, derived from her dissertation research, on Classic Maya elites, focused on issues of identity and culture change during the tumultuous Late Classic period.

Her newest research project moves forward in time into the Colonial era; she is in the beginning stages of planning an archaeological project designed to examine processes and strategies of change employed by Maya populations post-contact, especially in conjunction with local governing structures. During Summer 2007 she conducted a preliminary field season in Guatemala to identity possible sites for excavation; she will also be drawing upon textual records from the Archivo General de Centro América as part of the project.

~ Latin American Studies Luncheon Series

A light lunch will be provided to those who register online at http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=4469 by 9AM on Monday, October 22, 2007.