Astrid Runggaldier

Astrid Runggaldier is Associate Professor of Instruction at the Department of Art and Art History and former Assistant Director for the Mesoamerica Center at UT Austin and for the Casa Herrera project in Antigua, Guatemala. Dr. Runggaldier is a Mesoamericanist interested in particular in Maya culture and in anthropological approaches to material culture, architecture, households, and built environments in the context of the ancient civilizations of the Americas. She holds a doctorate in archaeology from Boston University with a dissertation on the architecture of the Maya site of San Bartolo, has extensive field experience in Guatemala and Belize, and has led study abroad programs in Central America for UT Austin and other US institutions for several years. Following administrative and teaching experiences at Boston University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Skidmore College, Dr. Runggaldier joined UT Austin and the Mesoamerica Center in 2012 as lecturer and faculty leader of international programming. Starting in 2015, she undertook management of daily operations and of special initiatives for the Mesoamerica Center, Casa Herrera, and the Mesoamerica Meetings, serving as Assistant Director until 2025. Since 2024, she leads Art History Honors as faculty advisor, overseeing the undergraduate Honors thesis program. Additionally, Dr. Runggaldier is the curator for UT’s Art and Art History Collection of Pre-Columbian artifacts and ethnographic textiles from the Americas, and contributes to the undergraduate curriculum of the Department of Art and Art History, the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies, the Native American and Indigenous Studies program, and the Bridging Disciplines Program in Museum Studies.