Florida Atlantic University

Faculty Member, Anthropology

Other Affiliations: Tulane University, Middle American Research Institute

Associate Professor

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

About

Background

I am an archaeologist and anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida. I received my B.A. in archaeology from Yale University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Tulane University. I worked in heritage management as a public archaeologist for some years before becoming an academic research archaeologist.

Research

Most of my research and experience in archaeology focuses geographically on the culture area called Mesoamerica, which encompasses central and eastern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and western Honduras. Within Mesoamerica, I have conducted archaeological research in Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua. I have excavated mainly in the Maya region, particularly in the state of Yucatan in the northern Maya lowlands. I have directed excavations at the ancient Maya capital of Mayapan, and I have conducted survey in the central part of Yucatan. As a student, I participated in excavation projects in Quintana Roo, Veracruz, and Chiapas, Mexico, and Copan, Honduras. During graduate school, I also spent six months conducting ethnoarchaeological research in a Yucatec Maya hamlet in Yucatan.

Recently, I began survey and excavations in northwest Nicaragua, in the Department of Chinandega.

Outside of Mesoamerica, I have worked in the southeast United States, in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

My research interests include the origins of civilization, particularly the emergence of inequality and social complexity; ceramic analysis; lithic analysis; and the application of quantitative methods in archaeology, especially fractal analysis.

I work closely with the Guatemalan Maya community in Palm Beach County, and I am currently vice-chair of the Palm Beach County Historic Resources Review Board.

Contact Information