The Proyecto Arqueológico de los Ríos Culebra-Colín (PARCC) is an archaeological research project working in collaboration with the comuna Dos Mangas. PARCC’s geographic foci are the lands alongside the Culebra and Colín Rivers, comprising the upper watershed of the Manglaralto Valley, and the lands of the comuna. This area has evidence for the entirety of the Ecuadorian pre-Hispanic coastal sequence and as such is a rich ground to explore culture change through time. The goals of PARCC are to carry out research-driven archaeological investigations, assist with salvage excavations of archaeological remains within the study area when possible, and engage local community members in projects that raise the visibility of local cultural heritage and advocate for its conservation.
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I specialize in anthropological archaeology and cultural heritage studies. My research interests include South American archaeology (specifically Ecuador), critical cultural heritage, and collaborative community research. I specialize in the archaeology of coastal Ecuador, particularly in the ceramic technology of pre-Columbian peoples. My research has spanned the Formative (3800-1400 BC) through the Integration Periods (800-1532 AD). My research focuses on questions of social organization and identity in the context of incipient social inequality. In my archaeological practice I focus on ceramic analysis, community collaboration in archaeology, and digital methods for conducting archaeological analysis and communicating research results. I received my PhD from the University of Illinois in 2014.
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. My work investigates past foodways, focusing on the social and political elements of food production and consumption. I received my PhD from the University of Toronto in 2017.
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. I specialize in bioarchaeology and Andean archaeology. My work uses human skeletal remains to investigates people’s identities and social structures in the past. I also work with human remains to evaluate past medical practices (trepanation or skull surgery) and violence levels within past Andean populations. I received my PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2015.
I am an assistant professor in the area of historical and collaborative archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America at UMASS-Boston. My research is mainly focused on Afro Ecuadorian historical strategies to survive slavery, structural racism, and gender discrimination, based on the examination of material culture, ancestral territories, historical narratives, and oral traditions of African-descendant populations. Since 2012, I have developed a community-based archaeological project in collaboration with Afro-Ecuadorian communities from a feminist standing point of view. The project that takes place in the Chota-Mira Valley (Provinces of Carchi-Imbabura) and provides a space for ethical and respectful work in heritage management, public and community archaeology. She obtained her doctoral and master's degrees from the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby-Canada).