“Mesoamerica and the Southwest: A New History for an Ancient Land” is a five-week institute for twenty-four college faculty to explore Mesoamerica and the Ancient Southwest. The Community College Humanities Association supports this institute, during which participants are based in four locations: Mexico City; Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Under the direction of Laraine Fletcher (anthropology, Adelphi University) and George Scheper (English, Community College of Baltimore County), who have run several successful programs on similar topics in the past, the participants engage directly with the “new history for an ancient land,” which looks at the southwestern United States and northern Mexico not as two culturally distinct regions, but as a heterogeneous yet unified cultural area in which deep-rooted regional traditions are linked by a common belief system. Excursions include trips to Teotihuacán, Tenayuca, Tenochtitlan, Aztec Ruins, Chaco Canyon, and Mesa Verde. Project directors are joined by visiting lecturers Donna Glowacki (anthropology, University of Notre Dame), Ramón Gutiérrez (history, University of Chicago), Kelley Hays-Gilpin (anthropology, Northern Arizona University), Stephen Lekson (anthropology, University of Colorado), Frances Levine (history, New Mexico History Museum), John Pohl (art history, University of California, Los Angeles), Eloise Quiñones Keber (art history, City University of New York), Kent Reilly (anthropology, Texas State University, San Marcos), Alan Sandstrom (anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue) and Karl Taube (anthropology, University of California, Riverside). Project directors collaborate with participants on their research projects and curricular design activities.
