About Us

Andrew Scherer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Brown University
(401) 863-7059
andrew_scherer@brown.edu
CV and Research Profile at Brown University

Andrew Scherer is an anthropological archaeologist and biological anthropologist with a geographic focus in Mesoamerica (Maya).  Scherer's research interests include political organization, warfare and violence, mortuary archaeology, landscape archaeology, and bioarchaeology.

Charles Golden, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Anthropology

Brandeis University

(781) 736-2217

cgolden@brandeis.edu

Research Profile at Brandeis University

Charles Golden is an anthropological archaeologist and has conducted research in Belize, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala. His interests include the political organization of the Prehispanic Maya, landscape archaeology and remote sensing, and the modern social contexts of archaeology in Latin America.

Mónica Urquizú

Director

Proyecto Paisaje Piedras Negras - Yaxchilan

urquizumonica@gmail.com

Mónica completed her Licenciatura at the Universidad de San Carlos of Guatemala. She has worked as both a field archaeologist and a ceramicist at various archaeological sites in the Peten and the Guatemalan Highlands such as Dos Pilas, San Bartolo, Xultun, Aguateca, Cancuen, Piedras Negras, Peru-Waka, Salinas de Los Nueve Cerros, and Kaminaljuyu. She has also directed various projects in the Peten and Guatemala City. She held the position of Directora Técnica of the Instituto de Antropología e Historia of Guatemala and is currently the Director of the Proyecto Paisaje Piedras Negras - Yaxchilan.

Shanti Morell-Hart, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
McMaster University
smorell@mcmaster.ca
https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/people/morell-hart-shanti

Shanti Morell-Hart is an anthropological archaeologist with a focus on the range and diversity of ethnobotanical practices, the role of plants in ritualized activity, and transformations in ethnoecological dynamics over time. Her research in Mesoamerica incorporates macrobotanical and microbotanical residues from diverse loci including ceramic vessels, stone implements, human teeth, and sediments.

James Doyle, Ph.D.
Assistant Curator, Art of the Ancient Americas

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
@JamesDoyleMet
james_doyle@alumni.brown.edu
CV and Publications

James Doyle is an anthropological archaeologist and the Assistant Curator for Art of the Ancient Americas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He installs works in The Met’s galleries, researches works in the collection, and curates special exhibitions of Ancient American art.

Whittaker Schroder
PhD Student, Department of Anthropology

University of Pennsylvania
wschro@sas.upenn.edu

Whittaker Schroder is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His interests include landscape archaeology, political economy, household archaeology, ceramics, and cultural heritage. Schroder is currently conducting survey and excavation of minor centers and settlement to the southwest of Piedras Negras in Chiapas, Mexico.

Omar Alcover Firpi
PhD Student, Department of Anthropology
Brown University
omar_alcover@brown.edu

Omar is a doctoral candidate in the Anthropology Department at Brown University. His dissertation research investigates Warfare in the Late Preclassic Usumacinta River Valley, focusing on the early fortress of Macabilero. His research incorporates archaeological survey and excavation in conjunction with GIS and Remote Sensing to answer how war was practiced by early settlers at Macabilero and how the site related to its non fortified neighbors.

Mallory Matsumoto
PhD Student, Department of Anthropology
Brown University
mallory_matsumoto@brown.edu

Mallory Matsumoto is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at Brown University. Her research addresses the interface between language, material culture, concepts of identity, and practice in pre-Columbian and colonial-era Mesoamerica, especially the Maya region. She has conducted archaeological fieldwork in the United States, Peru, Hungary, Mexico, and Guatemala.

Alejandra Roche Recinos
PhD Student, Department of Anthropology
Brown University
alejandra_rocherecinos@brown.edu

Alejandra Roche Recinos is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology. She was born in Guatemala City, where she also received her Licenciatura (5 year degree) in Archaeology in 2013 from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. Her work focuses on Mesoamerican economic systems of trade and exchange through the study of stone tool production. She has conducted archaeological research in the Guatemalan archaeological sites of La Corona, Kaminaljuyu, Río Seco, Tak’alik Ab’aj, El Soch and more recently in the site of Piedras Negras as part of Projecto Paisaje Piedras Negras Yaxchilan.

Max Seidita
PhD Student, Department of Anthropology
Brandeis University
mseidita@brandeis.edu

Max Seidita is a doctoral student in Brandeis University’s Department of Anthropology with a focus on anthropological archaeology. His research interests include political organization, urbanism, ancient economies, household archaeology, and archaeometry (pXRF). He has conducted research in Belize, Mexico, and the United States.

Joshua T. Schnell
PhD Student, Department of Anthropology
Brown University
joshua_schnell@brown.edu

Josh Schnell is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at Brown University studying archaeology and biological anthropology with foci on bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology. His research centers on the cultural modification of the antemortem and postmortem human body, human remains in non-burial contexts, and the human navigation of the death process. He has previously conducted archaeological fieldwork in Michigan and with the Central Belize Archaeological Survey in Belize.