Guido Pezzarossi

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.

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.”

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.