My primary research area is Mesoamerica, and the principal focus of my research is the domain of indigenous languages, societies and cultures, both modern and prehistoric. My first field work was in Chiapas, Mexico, where I took part in the University of Chicago's Chiapas Study Projects. I spent two years in the field, working on the varieties of Tzotzil spoken in Chalchihuitán and Zinacantan, and participating in a dialect survey of Tzotzil, visiting towns all over the western half of the Chiapas Highlands. I did dissertation research in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, and wrote my thesis on the grammar of Chuj as spoken in San Mateo Ixtatan. As part of my field work, I collected plant specimens and investigated Chuj ethnobotany. After teaching for a few years, I moved to Mexico City, where I trained Mexican anthropology students in research on Indian languages, doing field work on Otomi and Mazahua (dialect survey), Amuzgo (ethnobotany), and Nahuatl and Totonac (sociolinguistics), among other topics. Having revived an old interest in Mayan hieroglyphic writing, I then began to do research on Chol, the Mayan language spoken in northern Chiapas. Hieroglyphic writing and Mayan languages have continued to be a major part of my research, which includes not only language documentation and analysis but also ethnobotany and kinship as areas of specialization. In recent years I have developed an interest in the indigenous languages of the American Southeast, on similar topics. A principal concern in all these areas is the application of linguistic analyses to the study of prehistory. In this field, I have done library research leading to publications on the Uto-Aztecan, Mayan, and Otomanguean language families, and on the languages of the Southeastern United States. Link to Dr. Hopkin's CV
Dr. Josserand's research interests include languages and cultures of Mesoamerica, both modern and prehistoric, especially of southern Mesoamerica. She has worked extensively with languages of the Otomanguean family including a dialect history of the Mixtec languages of Oaxaca and the Mayan family of southern Mexico and Guatemala. She is an expert on Maya hierglyphic writing, and has written articles on the narrative structures of the Classic Maya literary tradition. She is also interested in linguistic prehistory and has written several articles on Mayan diversification and the history of Maya linguistic studies. She the faculty advisor for the Museum Studies certificate program and has sponsored two museum exhibitions, Woven Voices: Textile Traditions of the Highland Maya and Crossroads of Humanity: Exploring Our Past, Present, and Future.
Dr. Mary Pohl specializes in the archaeology of the Olmec and Maya cultures. Her main focus is the domestication of flora and fauna. She is particularly interested in the transition from forging to agriculture with a special concern for the evolution of maize. She is studying the role of the economic base in the rise of complex society in tropical lowland civilizations in Mesoamerica. Other areas of research include the domestication of dogs and deer as well as the role of gender in food production for both subsistence and ritual use.
