Guido Pezzarossi
Associate Professor, Anthropology
Degree
Ph.D. Stanford University, 2014
Specialties
Archaeology of colonialism, historical anthropology, postcolonial theory, new materialism, and archaeology of food
Courses
ANT 131 Intro to Biological Anthropology
ANT 200 Bootleggers, Smugglers and Sex Workers: The Archaeology
of Illegal and Illicit Activities
ANT 300 Cyborgs, Aliens and Other Worlds:Reading/Watching
Anthropology through Science Fiction
ANT 343 The Maya: Ancient and Early Modern
ANT 438/638: Beyond the Biological Need to Eat: The Archaeology
of Food and Foodways
ANT 448/648 Imperial Remains: The Archaeology of Colonial
Encounters
ANT 442/642: Methods in Archaeology
Biography
My research is centered on using archaeology to better
understand the entanglements between colonialism and capitalism and more
thoroughly reconstruct the diverse assemblage of human and nonhuman actors that
comprised early modern colonial contexts in the New World. The regional focus
of my research spans Spanish colonial contexts in Guatemala and English
colonial contexts in Massachusetts, providing a global comparative perspective
on the diverse processes of colonization and their effects on colonial
populations, both native and settler. I draw on a variety of theoretical
approaches in my work, including postcolonial, practice and new materialist
theories. I am particularly interested in exploring the intersection of
seemingly incompatible approaches, namely postcolonial and new
materialist/posthuman theoretical perspectives, as part of crafting a more
inclusive, holistic theoretical framework that is positioned to better account
for the wide variety of influences, motivations and causes (both human and
nonhuman) driving the unfolding of colonial encounters.
Publications
Pezzarossi, Guido and
Kennedy, Ryan (2019) “Assemblages of Production: Capitalist Colonial Labor
Regimes and Other Economic Practices in Highland Guatemala” Historical
Archaeology, Vol.53, Issue 3, Special Issue, Guido Pezzarossi (guest editor) (Fall
2019)
Pezzarossi, Guido (2019)
“Introduction: Rethinking the Archaeology of Capitalism” Historical
Archaeology, Vol.53, Issue 3, Special Issue, Guido Pezzarossi (guest editor)
(Fall 2019)
Pezzarossi, Guido (2019)
(editor) Rethinking the Archaeology of Capitalism: Coercion, Violence, and
Accumulation, Historical Archaeology, Vol. 53, Issue 3, Special Issue (Fall
2019)
Pezzarossi, Guido (2019)
“From Cacao to Sugar: Long-Term Maya Economic Entanglement in Colonial
Guatemala” in Long-term Indigenous Entanglement in the Colonial World, Heather
Law Pezzarossi and Russell Sheptak (eds.) University of New Mexico Press, Santa
Fe
Pezzarossi, Guido (2019)
“Rethinking Colonial Maya Peripherality: Colonial Frictions, Salvaged Value and
the Production of Modernity in Highland Guatemala” in Power, Political Economy
and Historical Landscapes of the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,
DeCorse, Christopher (ed.), SUNY Series, Fernand Braudel Center Studies in
Historical Science, SUNY Press, Albany
Corcoran-Tad, Noa and Pezzarossi, Guido (2018) “Between the South Sea and the
Mountainous Ridges: Biopolitical Assemblages in the Spanish Colonial Americas.”
Journal of Post-Medieval Archaeology, Vol.
52, Issue 1, Special Issue, Guest editors: Horning, Audrey and Mrozowski,
Stephen (co-authors in alphabetical order)
Pezzarossi, Guido (2014)
“Camouflaging Consumption and Colonial Mimicry: The Materiality of a Colonial
Nipmuc Household.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology,
18(1):146-174
Pezzarossi, Guido, Ryan
Kennedy and Heather Law (2012) “’Hoe Cakes and Pickerel’: Cooking Traditions
and Community at a Nineteenth Century Nipmuc Farmstead”. In The Menial Art
of Cooking: Archaeological Studies of Cooking and Food Preparation, pp.201-230,
edited by S. Graff and E. Rodriguez-Alegria, University of Colorado Press,
Boulder.
Robinson, Eugenia and Guido Pezzarossi (2012)
“Los Mayas del Clásico Tardío en la Región del Valle de Antigua: Defensa y Agricultura en las Tierras
Altas de Guatemala”, in XXV Simposio de
Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala 2011, pp.531-538, edited by B.
Arroyo, L. Paiz y H. Mejia Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, Guatemala.
Research Projects
2010-Present: Highland Maya Colonial Archaeology Project
2014-Present: Gratiots Grove Archaeological Project (link to project Facebook page)
2018-Present: Urban Archaeology and Cultural Heritage of the
I-81 Corridor
Research Grants and Awards
2019 SU Small Equipment
Grant: “Seeing Beneath the Surface: Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for
Archaeological Prospection and Heritage Management” Proposal: SEG-50-2019
(co-PI)
2019 SU Small Equipment
Grant: “UAS Drone LiDAR for Archaeology” (co-PI)
2018-2019 CNY Humanities Corridor Historical Studies Working Group,
“Slow Historical Studies” co-applicant with colleagues at Cornell University
and Colgate University)
2018-2020 Collaboration for Unprecedented Success and Excellence
(CUSE) Grant Program, “Urban Archaeology and Cultural Heritage of the I-81
Corridor: Recovering Syracuse's the Past as We Plan for the Future” (Co-PI) National
Science Foundation DDIG, 2013
National Science Foundation DDIG,
2013
National Geographic Society Waitt Grant, 2010
2013
National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant
2011
Stanford University Diversity Dissertation Research Opportunity Grant
2011
Stanford University Graduate Research Opportunity Grant
2011
Stanford University Community Engagement Grant
2010
National Geographic Society Waitt Grant for Highland Maya Colonial Archaeology
Project
2010
GeoEye Foundation Imagery Donation Grant
2008
Barbara E. Luedtke Book Award for Excellence in Historical Archaeology University
of Massachusetts-Boston for thesis entitled: “Consumption as Social Camouflage:
“Mimicry” and Nipmuc Survival Strategies in the Colonial World.”
Dissertation
A new materialist archaeology of antimarkets, power and capitalist effects in colonial Guatemala, 2014