Overview
Rafael is an anthropological archaeologist. He completed his B.A. in Archaeology at Mexico's National School of Anthropology and History, and his M.A. in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. He has participated in archaeological projects in Mexico, Palestine, and the US. He studies Mesoamerica, centring on social inequality in Teotihuacan. His interests include colonialism, imperialism, the rise of state societies, and current uses of archaeology for political purposes. Methodologically, he focuses on spatial analysis, mostly through the use of urbanism methods in archaeology and LiDAR mapping.