Students and faculty of The Mesoamerica Center were active all over the world this summer, attending conferences, conducting research and fieldwork, and leading study abroad programs.
Elliot Lopez-Finn, a PhD candidate, conducted dissertation research in the archives, museums, and archaeological sites of Mexico City and the Puebla-Tlaxcala region. Lopez-Finn’s research focuses on Postclassic conceptions of the ancient past, and how these conceptions affected the art of Precolumbian Nahua communities in Central Mexico.
Catherine Popovici, a second-year doctoral student, spent six weeks learning Yucatec Mayan in Valladolid and Xocén, Yucatán. Popovici also conducted fieldwork and research in the Tabasco, Chiapas, and Veracruz regions of Mexico. Her work addresses the importance of stelae placement within the landscape of the Classic period site of Copán.
Dr. Edwin Román graduated in the spring and has been living and working in Guatemala. He spent a month over the summer working at the Maya site of Ucanal in Peten researching the Terminal Classic occupation and rituals at the site. He also presented a paper on the time of relative peace in the Maya lowlands during the Classic period at the Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas in Guatemala.
During the past academic year, Stephanie Strauss presented various aspects of her doctoral research at two national academic conferences (the College Art Association and the Society for American Archaeology annual meetings), as well as the UT Austin Mesoamerica Meetings and the South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica. Stephanie was also an invited speaker at the Maya at the Lago Conference in April. This summer, Stephanie married Stephen Dakim Watty, her partner of eight years.
The Mesoamerica Center welcomes two new graduate students, Katherine McCarthy and Catherine Nuckols. We look forward to reporting on their research in the next newsletter!