Previous DeCormier Award Recipients

listed by year, name, and project title
(Please follow the ALBUM links to see photos taken by the researchers in the field.)

1979
Rosalie Robertson, Quiche-Maya of Chichicastenango in Highland Gutemala.
(Received Ph.D. in 1985 with the dissertation: Oneida Indian Educational Planning in Wisconsin)

1980
Kazuyasu Ochiai, San Andres Larralnzar, a Tzotzil Maya-speaking village in the Highlands of Chiapas , native mythology and ritual energy.
(Received Ph.D. in 1983 with the dissertation: When the Saints Come Marching In: A Micro-Analysis of Tipu and a Meta-Analysis of Twenty-Nine Paleodemographic Symbols)

1981
Duncan Earle, Tzotzil Maya agrarian colony in the Chiapas jungle: land use and self-suffiency.
(Received Ph.D. in 1984 with the dissertation: Cultural Logic and Ecology in Community Development: Failure and Success Cases Among the Highland Maya.)
Staffan Brunius, Symbolic content and ritual functions of Yucatec Maya bee culture: pre-Hispanic and colonial evidence and present-day practices.

1982
Julie Benyo, Archaeology in the central part of Honduras seen through ceramics.
(Received Ph.D. in 1986 with the dissertation: Archaeological Investigations of Intra-Community Social Organizations at La Ceiba, Comayagua, Honduras.)
John Sosa, Yalcoba, Yucatan, symbolic analysis of Yucatec Maya cosmology, rituals, etc.
(Became a shaman’s apprentice.
Received Ph.D. in 1985 with the dissertation: Maya Sky, the Maya World: A Symbolic Analysis of Yucatec Maya Cosmology)

1983
Erica Verillo, Dialect variations and pronoun usage in Tzotzil of Chiapas, Mexico.
Olya Szyka, Oral history and ethnography in a Tzotzil Maya community, El Bosque (founded by Chamula Indians over 100 years ago, after being exiled as a result of war).

1984
Liliana Goldin, Organizing the World through the Market: a Symbolic Analysis of Markets and Exchange in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. ALBUM
(Received Ph.D. in 1986)
Catherine Balfour

1985
Quetzil Castaneda, An ‘Archaeology’ of Chichén Itzá: Discourse, Power, and Resistance at a Maya Tourist Site.
(Received Ph.D. in 1991)

1986
David Scotchmer
(Received Ph.D. in 1991; deceased 1995)
Peter Dunham
(Received Ph.D. in 1990)

1987
Lisa Van Eysden

1988
Antonella Fabri, Composing the Nation: Politics of Memory and Displacement in Maya Testimonies from Guatemala.
(Received Ph.D. in 1994)
Alicia Re Cruz
(Received Ph.D. in 1992)

1989
Tricia Gabany, Deciphering the Symbolic Heritage of the Tarascan Empire: Interpreting the Political Economy of the Pueblo-Hospital of Parangaricuitiro, Michoacan.
(Received Ph.D. in 1999)
Thomas Jamison, Social Interaction and Architecture in Southern Belize.
(Received Ph.D. in 1993)
Linda Asturias Barrios, Mano de Muher, Mano de Hombre: Producción Artesanal Textil en Comalapa, Guatemala.

1990
Ricardo Vasquez
Linda Asturias Barrios
(Received Ph.D. in 1994)

1991
Brent Metz, Experiencing Conquest: The Political and Economic Roots and Cultural Expression of Mayo-Chorti Ethos.
(Received Ph.D. in 1995)

1992
Silvia Salgado, Social Change in a Region of Granada, Pacific Nicaragua (1000 B.C.-1522 A.D.).
(Received Ph.D. in 1996)

1993
Thomas van Alstyne

1994
Amadeo Meana

1995
Lisa Cascio, Teotihuacan Imperial Relations in the Yautepc Valley, Morelos, Mexico.
Nancy Forand, Viewing the World-System from Below: A Study of the Modern Maya.

1996
Nancy Forand, Maya Religious Pluralism: A Study of Language, Gender, and Social Change. ALBUM
(Received Ph.D. in 2001 with the dissertation: Mayas in the Age of Apocalypse: Folk Catholics and Evangelicals in Quintana Roo)
Timothy Hare, Archaeological Survey of the Yautepec Valley, Morelos, Mexico.
(Received Ph.D. in 2001 with the dissertation: Political Economy, Spatial Analysis, and Postclassic States in the Yautepec Valley, Mexico)

1997
Annette McLeod, In Search of Nepantla: The Nahua Construction and Maintenance of Churches in Colonial Mexico.
Jan Olson, The Agents of Power: Late Postclassic Aztec Social Differentiation and Community Organization.
(Received Ph.D. in 2001: Unequal Consumption: A Study of Domestic Wealth Differentials in Three Late Postclassic Mexican Communities)

1998
Bradley Tatar, Community Politics and Ethnic Persistence: Monimbo, Masaya, Nicaragua.
Lisa Montiel, On the Border of the Teotihuacan Empire: Archaeological Investigations in the Yautepec Valley, Mexico.
Timothy Hare, Aztec Ceramic Production and Market Systems: Survey and Analysis of Clay Sources in the Yautepec Valley, Mexico.

1999
Jinsook Choi, Language Choice and Language Ideology of the K’iché Maya in Guatemala.

2000
Jinsook Choi, Language Choice in a Mayan Community: The Politics of Identity Formation in Contemporary Guatemala.
Miguel Aguilera, A Survey of Maya Villages with Communicating Crosses.

2001
Stewart Brewer, Guatemalan Archival Research on the Chorti Maya.
(Received Ph.D. from the History Department, SUNY Albany.)
Elizabeth A. Hoag, Ceramics, Style and the Archaeology of Social Boundaries from the Mixtequilla, Veracruz, Mexico.

2002
Jessica C. Child, An Archaeometric and Contextual Study of Figurine Exchange at Piedras Negras, Guatemala.
(Received M.A. in 2002)
Lachlan Duncan, The Syntactic Structure of the Tz’utujil Mayan Language. ALBUM
Jonathan Maupin, Mesoamerican Cultural Logics and Healing Strategies.

2003
Jerry Ek, The Champotón Regional Archaeological Settlement Survey. ALBUM
Josalyn Ferguson, Reevaluating the Maya “Collapse”: Opportunism, Migration and Cultural Adjustment in the Terminal Classic Period, an Examination of the Terminal Classic Strath Bogue Site, Belize.
Bradley Russell, The Mayapán Extra-Muralla Survey.

2004
Edgar Martín del Campo, Polysemic Analysis of the “Nagual” in Post-Colonial Mexican Folklore.
Jerry Ek, Political and Economic Change on the Gulf Coast Periphery of the Maya Area: Classic to Postclassic in Champotón, Campeche.

2005
Claudia Dary, Ethnic Identity, Community Organization and Social Experience in Eastern Guatemala.
Maria Diaz Montejo, Traditional Performance in Jakaltenango: A Preliminary Study of Mayan Tradition and Identity.

2006
Elizabeth Paris, Economic and Cultural Frontiers of the Highland Maya.

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Updated February 16, 2006