Harvard University

Graduate Student, Anthropology

Thesis Title: Out of Urbs, Civitas: Landscapes of Colonial Forced Resettlement in the Zaña and Chamán Valleys, Perú

About

Hi! I'm Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, defending my dissertation in Spring 2012. The core of my recent research has centered on the archaeological and archival examination of Spanish forced resettlement (reduccion) of the indigenous peoples of Peru's North Coast region during the 16th and 17th centuries C.E. Specifically, I examine how the movement transformed landscapes and indigenous political subjectivities, and demonstrate how its grand aims were rearticulated in the context of local socio-political and environmental uncertainties. In turn, I frame reduccion as key case for understanding the spatial qualities of colonial encounters in the Americas and the long development of “modern” disciplinary practices and governmentality. I am also engaged in ongoing research focusing on early colonial ceramic technology and cultural hybridity, colonial land tenure, Andean Formative Period value systems and long-term environmental change in Peru's coastal region.

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