CIAMS postdoctoral associate Maia Dedrick was awarded an Engaged Anthropology Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to return this summer to the town of Tahcabo, Yucatán, Mexico—the site of her dissertation research. The Engaged Anthropology Grant is designed to enable grantees to return to their research locale to share their research results with the community in which the research was conducted, and/or the academic/anthropological community in the region or country of research.
Her project will engage local university students and a working group of town residents in the creation of an exhibit about the archaeological project, which focused on the daily lives of farmers during the Colonial period (ca. AD 1540-1820), to be housed in the community museum. Dedrick will work with students and town residents to review the results of the research project, discuss the research outcomes and narratives that the community wishes to highlight, and select relevant artifacts to display. The plan is to inaugurate the museum exhibit, in an event with food, presentations, and performances, on August 23, 2020—the fifth anniversary of the community museum.
This research and collaboration with community members has taken place as part of PACOY (the Proyecto Arqueológico Colaborativo del Oriente de Yucatán), a project co-directed by Patricia A. McAnany of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Adolfo Iván Batún Alpuche of the Universidad de Oriente (Valladolid, Yucatán)
Congratulations to Maia!
All photo credits: Kate Leonard
