Journal Articles and Book Chapters
The Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education , 2020
The University of South Florida, a public research university, and the University Area Community ... more The University of South Florida, a public research university, and the University Area Community Development Corporation Inc., a nonprofit organization, collaboratively developed a community-based global learning experience for undergraduate students. We present the results of a study exploring the impact of the experience on students who participated across two semesters. Results suggest that student learning was enhanced across all intended student learning outcomes, though some outcomes were developed more than others.
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International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 2020
The Global Citizens Project (GCP) is a university-wide global learning initiative at the Universi... more The Global Citizens Project (GCP) is a university-wide global learning initiative at the University of South Florida, aimed at enhancing undergraduate students’ global competencies through curricular and co-curricular experiences. The GCP uses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for these experiences. Understanding the SDGs allows students to expand their ideas on issues that exist in the world and how we might respond to the challenges. The purpose of this article is to provide a case study showing how the GCP has introduced students from all disciplines and undergraduate degree programmes to the SDGs through interdisciplinary workshops, with the aim of helping them to better understand the SDGs and connect global issues to their academic goals, professional objectives and everyday experiences. To determine whether the aims of the workshops were met, qualitative content analysis is employed to analyse the constructed responses of students who attended them. The results of the study suggest that the SDGs provide a relevant and sufficiently robust framework for guiding undergraduate students in their thinking about global issues as well as their relationship with these issues.
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Latin American Antiquity, 2019
Shared identities create deep historical ties to community spaces and can facilitate or constrict... more Shared identities create deep historical ties to community spaces and can facilitate or constrict political expansion. This research examines the relationship between the ways in which families engaged local landscapes and developed shared identities at Actuncan, Belize, during the Terminal Classic period, a time when the city experienced population growth as surrounding centers declined. The nature and location of activity patterns in and around three residential groups allow inferences about shared practices and the expression of identities that those activities enabled and constrained. Importantly, this research includes investigations of both residential groups and architecturally free areas. It uses multiple methods to explore activities and to produce overlapping datasets, including excavation and analysis of macroartifacts, microartifacts, and soil chemical residues. The results suggest that Actuncan residents used not only the formal patio spaces of residential groups but also the interstitial spaces between them. Moreover, one residential group, Group 1, appears to have been a locus for distinct activities including sequential burials and, possibly, affiliative ritual practices connected to ancestral landscape use. Understanding relationships among residents is an important foundation for exploring broader political dynamics, including relationships between residents and rulers and how rulers created, legitimized, and maintained power and authority.
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Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2013
Patios and plazas represent two of the most common types of open space found at ancient Mesoameri... more Patios and plazas represent two of the most common types of open space found at ancient Mesoamerican settlements. Patios tended to serve as areas for household activities, while plazas were commonly the focus of community wide religious and political rituals. With the aid of geochemical prospection of sediments and plasters, archaeologists have been able to successfully identify and characterize these spaces at many archaeological sites in the Maya region of southern Mesoamerica. However, in communities located adjacent to the Maya world where cultural interactions between different ethnic groups were highly complex, it is difficult to understand the use, management, and meaning of open spaces, which often shifted over time. While geochemical studies in the region have been useful for detecting the locations of activity areas in open spaces, the structure and composition of these activities often remain challenging to interpret because they represent a palimpsest of different practices over time. In this paper, we examine the interplay of chemical residues with other sediment properties, including organic matter and potential hydrogen, with the greater goal of increasing the interpretive potential of geochemical data for understanding activity spaces at the site of Palmarejo in northwest Honduras (ca. AD 600–900). Using a mild acid extraction procedure and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, we chemically characterize anthrosols from a formally defined open space at the site, and analyze the data quantitatively and spatially using interpolation with Kriging. We then compare the spatial patterns of the chemical elements to the distributions of soil organic matter (loss-on-ignition) and soil pH (glass electrode), and evaluate the results with excavation data from the space. While the results are not straightforward, our research leads us to conclude that the area under investigation most likely served as a venue for ritual activities, a finding that is consistent with similarly structured areas in the community and the broader region. These results lead us to advocate for more integrated analyses of multiple sediment properties in archaeological prospection of complex spaces.
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Research during the 1990s by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project found that Mopan River Valley... more Research during the 1990s by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project found that Mopan River Valley populations experienced a relatively rapid decline during the ninth century in association with the collapse of Classic Maya polities. Recent research by the Actuncan Archaeological Project indicates a locally different demographic pattern. Rather than a slow abandonment, Actuncan’s urban households continued to grow during the Terminal Classic period. This paper reports on the patterns of architectural modifications within three households at Actuncan during the Late and Terminal Classic periods and their possible implications for shifting social and political power structures within the Mopan Valley region.
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Mesoamerican Plazas: Arenas of Community Building and Power Negotiation, 2014
Archaeological research is often based on material remains, such as architecture, lithics, and po... more Archaeological research is often based on material remains, such as architecture, lithics, and pottery. However, much of ancient material culture was made from biodegradable material and has thus not survived in the archaeological record (Cavanagh et al. 1988). This is especially true in humid tropic and subtropic areas of Mesoamerica. Additionally, analysis of the use of space can be difficult at archaeological sites that were abandoned gradually. In gradual abandonment, important objects for interpretation are often carried away, and their context, distribution, and presence are significantly affected and modified (Fernández et al. 2002). To further complicate archaeological interpretation, many spaces, particularly plazas, were often kept clean of material debris thus leaving even less material remains for archaeologists to examine. Nevertheless, chemical signatures of human activities remain, even in tropical areas. Such soils modified by human activity, called anthrosols, provide important clues to past activities and space use. The integration of soil chemical residue analysis with excavation data in archaeological research can be used as a powerful method to help researchers understand spatial usage patterns and activity loci. Previous geoarchaeological studies of anthropogenic soils and sediments have shown that specific activities leave characteristic chemical signatures on prepared earthen surfaces (e.g. Fernández et al. 2002; Middleton and Price 1996; Wells 2003, 2004). By analyzing the spatial distributions of a variety of elements within soils, coupled with excavation data, researchers can infer spatial use. Through spatial use, we can further attempt to understand societal relationships. The purpose of this chapter is to show how soil chemical residue analysis can enhance the interpretation of activities within plazas. I will focus on three Late Classic plaza spaces at the prehispanic settlement of Palmarejo, Honduras.
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Ph.D. Dissertation
Dissertation, 2015
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M.A. Thesis
M.A. Thesis, 2010
Plazas and patios were important spaces for expressing power and social identity in prehispanic M... more Plazas and patios were important spaces for expressing power and social identity in prehispanic Mesoamerica. However, plazas can be analytically problematic, because they were often kept clean of material debris. Previous geoarchaeological studies of anthropogenic soils and sediments have shown that specific activities leave characteristic chemical signatures on prepared earthen surfaces. The research presented here uses soil chemical residue analysis and excavation data to examine use patterns in the North Plaza of Palmarejo, Honduras during the Late Classic period. The goal is to determine whether the plaza was used for residential or ceremonial purposes. The chemical results indicate that activities in the northern half of the plaza were distinct from those that occurred in the southern half. These results, along with the artifact assemblage recovered from excavations, suggest ceremonial use. Additionally, this research compares various soil properties, including pH and organic matter, from the North Plaza to broaden our reach in prospecting for activity loci using soil chemistry. Recent studies tend to rely on spatial differences in elemental concentrations for identifying activity patterns in the archaeological record. However, other related soil properties sometimes correlate with chemical residues, especially phosphates. The research presented explores these interconnections with the greater goal of identifying the ways and extent to which various soil properties are linked in the formation and preservation of ancient activity loci. Results suggest that the deposition and adsorption of chemical residues in anthropogenic soils at Palmarejo are generally too variable to be accurately characterized by either pH or organic matter. Chemical elements may best reveal the use of the North Plaza in antiquity.
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Teaching Documents
Teaching and Learning Anthropology Journal: Teaching Resources, 2020
Immigration is one of the most controversial issues in the United States (U.S.) today. It seems a... more Immigration is one of the most controversial issues in the United States (U.S.) today. It seems as if everywhere you turn, there are endless debates about immigration reform and other related policies. With topics such as building border walls and banning immigrants frequently discussed in the news and on social media, a variety of viewpoints are presented, some based on inaccuracies. One of the challenges for many undergraduate students is critically evaluating the veracity of information, including what they hear about immigration and immigrants. Further, many false narratives have caused people to stereotype immigrant populations and exhibit divisive behavior. Thus, it is important to encourage students to evaluate the “facts” they encounter in everyday life and deconstruct where these ideas come from.
This teaching resource is an activity that encourages student evaluation of immigration misconceptions in the U.S., where these ideas come from, and why they persist. I have used this activity successfully in both online and face-to-face formats of an undergraduate course which focuses on social issues and civic engagement from an interdisciplinary perspective (with immigration as one unit within the course). I have found that this activity helps students to integrate their own past experiences with course content to critically evaluate current narratives as well as explore multiple viewpoints of each misconception. Although this activity, as presented, here is used in an interdisciplinary course, it would be appropriate for introduction to anthropology, cultural anthropology, or other introductory courses.
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Selected Publications
PALAEOLANDSCAPES IN ARCHAEOLOGY: Lessons for the Past and Future, 2022
What can we learn about the ancient landscapes of our world, and how can those lessons improve ou... more What can we learn about the ancient landscapes of our world, and how can those lessons improve our future in the landscapes that we all inhabit? Those questions are addressed in this book, through a practical framework of concepts and methods, combined with detailed case studies around the world.
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Papers
American Journal of Distance Education, Nov 8, 2022
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Journal of community engagement and higher education, Dec 31, 2020
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Springer eBooks, 2018
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Springer eBooks, 2020
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The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
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The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
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Palaeolandscapes in Archaeology, 2021
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Uploads
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Ph.D. Dissertation
M.A. Thesis
Teaching Documents
This teaching resource is an activity that encourages student evaluation of immigration misconceptions in the U.S., where these ideas come from, and why they persist. I have used this activity successfully in both online and face-to-face formats of an undergraduate course which focuses on social issues and civic engagement from an interdisciplinary perspective (with immigration as one unit within the course). I have found that this activity helps students to integrate their own past experiences with course content to critically evaluate current narratives as well as explore multiple viewpoints of each misconception. Although this activity, as presented, here is used in an interdisciplinary course, it would be appropriate for introduction to anthropology, cultural anthropology, or other introductory courses.
Selected Publications
Papers
This teaching resource is an activity that encourages student evaluation of immigration misconceptions in the U.S., where these ideas come from, and why they persist. I have used this activity successfully in both online and face-to-face formats of an undergraduate course which focuses on social issues and civic engagement from an interdisciplinary perspective (with immigration as one unit within the course). I have found that this activity helps students to integrate their own past experiences with course content to critically evaluate current narratives as well as explore multiple viewpoints of each misconception. Although this activity, as presented, here is used in an interdisciplinary course, it would be appropriate for introduction to anthropology, cultural anthropology, or other introductory courses.