The title of my dissertation is Doubt, Shame, and the Maya Self.  Please see the Publications page for an abstract of that completed work.

I recently finished co-authoring an invited chapter on aspects of creativity in the production of advertising, fiction, and ethnography (please see Publications for more information).

One of the current projects on which I am working in Cobá, Quintana Roo, México, arises from aspects of my dissertation and is abstracted below:

"Despite the Spiritual Conquest, the Maya have continued to integrate relics of their ancestors into their animistic beliefs and practices. Although this animism's surface forms have altered appreciably over time, its underlying logic has survived relatively intact until, perhaps, now. The arrival of archaeology and the subsequent growth of tourism have brought modern science and Maya animism into illuminating confrontation within Cobá's archaeological zone. The proposed project involves archival research, collection of oral histories, and ethnographic analysis of beliefs and practices, both animistic and scientific, which center on local archaeological materials. The goal is to learn more about the nature of Maya (and, indeed, Mesoamerican) animism, its current form and functioning, its possible future and its probable past."

A second project, on which I am also currently engaged, focuses on Maya dreaming.