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Sarah Jackson
Assistant Professor
464 Braunstein Hall
513-556-5781
sarah.jackson@uc.edu
Education
PhD, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2005 (Anthropology [Archaeology]).
Professional Summary
Sarah Jackson is an anthropological archaeologist with a research focus on ancient Mesoamerica, and particularly Classic Maya culture. She received the PhD from Harvard University in 2005, and held positions at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Toronto before joining the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati.
Her work investigates issues of political hierarchy, identity production and ideas of difference, and cultural responses to change. Methodologically, she works at the intersection of text and the material record. Her doctoral work looked at the Late Classic Maya royal court as a critical political institution for disseminating shifting cultural ideals and responding strategically to changing pressures of the Late Classic era; as part of this research, she conducted excavations at the Maya sites of Piedras Negras and Cancuen in Guatemala, and also analyzed Classic-era hieroglyphic texts and historical linguistic information from the early Colonial era. This research is discussed in detail in her first book, which is currently under review. She is now continuing investigations of power production and the role of central and secondary political centers in the Late Classic through excavations at the site of Say Kah, just outside of La Milpa, Belize, where she excavated in Summer 2009.
Most recently, she has begun investigations for a new project examining related questions of indigenous political organization and response to change in the Colonial period. This project will involve both archaeological and textual investigation of an early Colonial reducción, or forced resettlement of Maya people, located in the Pacific Coast region of Guatemala. Currently, she is beginning work on early Colonial textual sources that document how material objects and ideas about value played a part in the changes of this era. This project draws upon her interests in materiality and the ways in which the material world is used to mediate social interactions and identities.
Courses Taught
ANTH 109 - Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology.
ANTH 305 - Maya Prehistory.
ANTH 325 - Identities and Material Culture.
ANTH 370 - Historical Archaeology.
ANTH 440 - Royal Courts of the Ancient New World.
