The Maya Art of Speaking Writing: Remediating Indigenous Orality in the Digital Age
(University of Arizona Press, 2022)
Drawing from the Maya conception of tz’ib (writing not limited to Greco-Latin script) and Guatemalan Indigenous understandings of orality (tzij, ch’owen, and choloj), this manuscript analyzes representations of Maya identities in print and digital media in relation to forms of mediation—transcription, cultural and linguistic translation, collaboration, and ethnographic field research. Through a multi-genre approach, the case studies in this book demonstrate the diverse ways that the remediated orality in the recorded media encapsulated by tz’ib’ further disseminates orality beyond Guatemala’s geopolitical borders, promoting a variety of decolonial activist initiatives in relation to the armed conflict (1960-1996), contemporary Pan-Maya activism, and Guatemalan Maya migration to Mexico and the United States. To purchase a copy, click here. To read reviews, click here: NAIS and Chasqui.
(University of Arizona Press, 2022)
Drawing from the Maya conception of tz’ib (writing not limited to Greco-Latin script) and Guatemalan Indigenous understandings of orality (tzij, ch’owen, and choloj), this manuscript analyzes representations of Maya identities in print and digital media in relation to forms of mediation—transcription, cultural and linguistic translation, collaboration, and ethnographic field research. Through a multi-genre approach, the case studies in this book demonstrate the diverse ways that the remediated orality in the recorded media encapsulated by tz’ib’ further disseminates orality beyond Guatemala’s geopolitical borders, promoting a variety of decolonial activist initiatives in relation to the armed conflict (1960-1996), contemporary Pan-Maya activism, and Guatemalan Maya migration to Mexico and the United States. To purchase a copy, click here. To read reviews, click here: NAIS and Chasqui.
Kemtzij: Weaving Reciprocal Indigenous Ontologies in Kaqchikel Maya Arts
(Under Advanced Contract, Amherst College Press)
Essay Contributor and Co-Editor (First Author), with Joyce N. Bennett and Judith M. Maxwell, eds.
Paperback and open-access essay collection on reciprocity and duality in contemporary Kaqchikel Maya arts (poetry, textiles, social media, street murals, Maya spiritual ceremonies).
(Under Advanced Contract, Amherst College Press)
Essay Contributor and Co-Editor (First Author), with Joyce N. Bennett and Judith M. Maxwell, eds.
Paperback and open-access essay collection on reciprocity and duality in contemporary Kaqchikel Maya arts (poetry, textiles, social media, street murals, Maya spiritual ceremonies).
Books In Progress
Maya Activist Ecologies: Cultural Survivance and Land Sovereignty in Street Art and Graffiti in Lake Atitlán
Using a feminist, ecocritical approach, I analyze street art and graffiti in Lake Atitlán as public tools of present-day cultural and linguistic preservation.
Decolonial Transnational Ch'owen: Invoking Guatemalan Highland Spirituality and Environmental Indigenous Futurisms
Analysis of representations of the four cardinal points across media formats and genres of contemporary Kaqchikel Maya cultural production.
Qak'aslem Maya' Chupam ri Pach'ün Tzij / Nuestra Vida en la Poesía Maya / Our Lives in Maya Poetry
Trilingual (Kaqchikel Maya, Spanish, English) translation of book-length collection of poems by Kaqchikel social scientist, poet, and ajq'ij (daykeeper), Professor Kawoq Baldomero Cuma Chávez.
Maya Activist Ecologies: Cultural Survivance and Land Sovereignty in Street Art and Graffiti in Lake Atitlán
Using a feminist, ecocritical approach, I analyze street art and graffiti in Lake Atitlán as public tools of present-day cultural and linguistic preservation.
Decolonial Transnational Ch'owen: Invoking Guatemalan Highland Spirituality and Environmental Indigenous Futurisms
Analysis of representations of the four cardinal points across media formats and genres of contemporary Kaqchikel Maya cultural production.
Qak'aslem Maya' Chupam ri Pach'ün Tzij / Nuestra Vida en la Poesía Maya / Our Lives in Maya Poetry
Trilingual (Kaqchikel Maya, Spanish, English) translation of book-length collection of poems by Kaqchikel social scientist, poet, and ajq'ij (daykeeper), Professor Kawoq Baldomero Cuma Chávez.