Maya Studies Initiative
Templo 2, Tikal, photo: Dennis Jarvis
UT Austin has long been a leader in the study of Maya culture, languages, and civilization, hosting research that spans over five millennia and encompasses prehistory, history, and the contemporary world.
The Maya Studies Initiative channels the work of UT Austin faculty, researchers, and students who are active in the study of the ancient and contemporary Maya, bridging diverse fields such as Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Geography, Linguistics, and Religious Studies.
The initiative fosters a collective approach to learning and research, strengthening ties and coordination around the university’s existing faculty and academic units, including the Mesoamerica Center in the College of Fine Arts, and various departments in the College of Liberal Arts.
Maya Studies Initiative Chair
David Stuart, David and Linda Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing, Department of Art and Art History; Director, Mesoamerica Center
- Maya Studies Units and Projects
The Mesoamerica Center in the Department of Art and Art History
The Mesoamerica Meetings, hosting “Tikal and its Neighbors” in 2026 (details TBD)
AILLA: Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America
Belize Archaeological Project, Dr. Fred Valdez, director; under the Center for Archaeological and Tropical Studies
Center for Archaeological and Tropical Studies (CATS), located within the Texas Archaeological Research Project and part of the Department of Anthropology
LLAMA Lab: Lidar and Landscapes of the Ancient Mediterranean and Americas, in Department of Geography and the Environment
Xultun-San Bartolo Project: Proyecto Regional Arqueológico San Bartolo-Xultun, Guatemala
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- Affiliated Faculty and Post-Docs
Manda Adam, post-doc, Texas Archeological Research Lab | Interests: Director of research program in Colha, Northern Belize
Timothy Beach, Geography and the Environment | Interests: Geoarchaeology; soils; climate history; geomorphology; paleoenvironments of the Maya world and Mediterranean
Iyaxel Cojti Ren, Anthropology | Interests: Political violence; historical memory; history; pre-contact history
Thomas Garrison, Geography and the Environment | Interests: Maya archaeology; Mesoamerican archaeology; GIS; remote sensing; lidar; landscape archaeology; warfare
Danny Law, Linguistics | Interests: Historical linguistics, language contact, Mayan languages, writing systems
Sheryl Luzzader-Beach, Geography and the Environment | Interests: Geoarchaeology; hydrology and water quality; geomorphology; spatial statistics; science and human rights; Mesoamerica; Mediterranean and Near East; Peru; Iceland
Mallory Matsumoto, Religious Studies | Interests: Mesoamerican religions; Maya archaeology; Mesoamerican ethnohistory; Classic Maya hieroglyphs; Mayan languages; anthropology of religion; anthropology of writing
Carlos Morales-Aguilar, post-doc, Geography & the Environment | Interests: Human-environment interactions; landscape archaeology; Karst topography; GIS, remote sensing & LiDAR; settlement patterns & ancient land use; landscape modeling; Mesoamerica; Ancient Maya civilization
Edwin Román Ramírez, LLILAS Tinker Visiting Professor | Interests: Director, Southern Tikal Archaeological Project (PAST, or Proyect Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal); read "A Teotihuacan altar in Tikal, Guatemala"
Sergio Romero, Spanish and Portuguese | Interests: Language variation and change; language contact; new dialect formation; deixis, discourse and social hierarchies; linguistic anthropology; language and ritual; Mayan languages; Nahuatl
Astrid Runggaldier, Art and Art History | Interests: Mesoamerica; Maya culture; anthropological approaches to material culture, architecture, households, and built environments
David Stuart (chair), Art and Art History, Mesoamerica Center | Interests: Traditional cultures of Mesoamerica; archaeology and epigraphy of ancient Maya civilization; Maya iconography, religion, and political history
Amy E. Thompson, Geography and the Environment | Interests: Mesoamerica; ancient Maya
Fred Valdez, Jr., Anthropology | Interests: Archaeology; ceramic technology; Texas; Mesoamerica
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Contact Us
Caroline Garriott, LLILAS Public Engagement Coordinator: caroline.garriott@austin.utexas.edu