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Category: Anthropology

Scholars at the Library Reflect on the Historical and Personal Significance of the Huexotzinco Codex (1531)

Posted by: Dan Turello

On October 3 and 4, 2022, in a conference room on the 6th floor of the Library of Congress’ Madison Building, a group of scholars from Mexico and the United States poured over the facsimile pictures of the Huexotzinco Codex, which dates back to 1531 and is held in the Library’s Manuscript Division. The scholars …

A 16th Century Codex Tells a Story of Resistance to Colonial Rule

Posted by: Sophia Zahner

Jay I. Kislak Chair Barbara E. Mundy is an art historian whose scholarship explores zones of contact between Native peoples and settler colonists as they forged new visual cultures in the Americas. She is Donald and Martha Robertson Chair in Latin American Art History at Tulane University, Senior Fellow of Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Scholar Spotlight: Carla Freeman and Sarah Smeed on the Women Who Have Inspired Them

Posted by: Giselle M. Avilés

Women have made incredible strides forward in academia. In 2018, 53% of the 79,000 doctoral degrees in the United States were awarded to women. That said, women still face unique challenges when faced with life after the Ph.D. During March, which is Women’s History Month, the Library, in partnership with the National Archives and Records …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Seminoles: Power Brokers in the Florida Borderlands

Posted by: Giselle M. Avilés

When I found out that Kluge Fellow John Paul Nuño, who is an Associate Professor of History at California State University, Northridge, was using a borderlands framework to inform his research on socio-political processes affecting Americans Indians, I wanted to learn more about his topic and methodology. In November, which was Native American History Month, …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

New Resource Guide Highlights Kislak Chair Simon Martin

Posted by: Giselle M. Avilés

In September, the John W. Kluge Center welcomed Simon Martin, anthropologist and specialist in Maya hieroglyphic writing, as the second Jay I. Kislak Chair for the Study of the History and Cultures of the Early Americas. He is working on a project called “Articulations of Power Among the Classic Maya.” We’ve created a resource guide, …