Guido Pezzarossi
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Director, Anthropology Department
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
Highest degree earned
Graduate Student Dissertation Title
Bio
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.
Areas of Expertise
Research Grant Awards and 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
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.”
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.