Susan D. Gillespie

Susan D. Gillespie joined the faculty at the University of Florida as an Associate Professor of Anthropology in August 2001. She became Associate Department Chair in 2003, serving in that capacity until 2008. Also in 2003 she was elected President-Elect of the Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association, serving as President from 2005 to 2007. She was certified with the Register of Professional Archaeologists in 2006. Dr. Gillespie received her Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1983 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in the archaeology and ethnohistory of Mesoamerica. That year she was hired as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Illinois State University, Normal, where she was promoted to Associate Professor in 1990. During part of that time she also served as Acting Director of the Midwestern Archaeological Research Center, a contract archaeology program focusing on the Euroamerican period in the Midwest. In 1994 she was hired as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2000. She has directed archaeological projects in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico, and has conducted ethnohistorical studies of both the Aztec and Maya peoples and iconographic analyses of Mesoamerican artworks in general.  Dr. Gillespie is the recipient of the 1990 Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize from the American Society for Ethnohistory for The Aztec Kings (1989), and also the 2002 Gordon R. Willey Prize from the American Anthropological Association.

Research Interests

Archaeology, ethnohistory, iconography, and epigraphy of Mesoamerica (focusing on Aztecs, Mayas, and Olmecs); kinship, kingship, and socio-political organization; cosmology and political ideologies; symbolic, structural, and semiotic anthropology; archaeological and social theory; the anthropology of history; the history of anthropology.

Current Projects:  An Architectural Reconstruction of La Venta Complex A: A Re-Analysis of the 1955 La Venta Project.
                            Different Ways of Seeing: Modes of Social Consciousness in Mesoamerican Two-Dimensional Artworks

Publications

BOOKS:

Archaeology Is Anthropology, edited by S. D. Gillespie and D. L. Nichols.  Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association No. 13. 2003 

Beyond Kinship: Social and Material Reproduction in House Societies, edited by R. A. Joyce and S. D. Gillespie. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2000

The Aztec Kings: The Construction of Rulership in Mexica History. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1989
        Winner of the 1990 Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize awarded by the American Society for Ethnohistory

MAJOR ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS:

"Embodied Persons and Heroic Kings in Late Classic Maya Sculpture." To appear in Past Bodies, edited by Dušan Borić and John E. Robb. Oxbow, 2009

"The People of the Cerro: Landscape, Settlement, and Art at Middle Formative Period Chalcatzingo" by David C. Grove and Susan D. Gillespie.  To appear in The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Cities Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery, edited by William L. Fash and Leonardo Lopez Lujan.   Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks.

"History in Practice: Ritual Deposition at La Venta Complex A." To appear in Memory Work: Archaeologies of Material Practices, edited by Barbara J. Mills and William H. Walker, pp. 109-136. Santa Fe: School of Advanced Research Press. 2008

"The Architectural History of La Venta Complex A: A Reconstruction Based on the 1955 Field Records."  Foundation for Advancement of  Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. 2008.

"Blaming Moteuczoma: The Anthropomorphization of the Aztec Conquest."   In Invasion and Transformation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Conquest of Mexico, edited by R.P. Brienen and M.A. Jackson, pp. 25-55.  Niwot: University Press of Colorado. 2008

"Toltecs, Tula, and Chichen Itza: The Development of an Archaeological Myth." In Twin Tollans: Chichen Itza, Tula, and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by C. Kristan-Graham and J. K. Kowalski, pp. 84-127.  Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks.  2007

"When is a House?" In The Durable House: House Society Models in Archaeology, ed. by R. Beck, pp. 25-50. Center for Archaeological Investigations Occasional Paper No. 35. Carbondale, IL. 2007.

"Is Archaeology Anthropology?" by D. L. Nichols, R. A. Joyce, and S. D. Gillespie. In Archaeology Is Anthropology, edited by S. D. Gillespie and D. L. Nichols.  Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association No. 13, pp. 3-13. 2003 

"Teaching Archaeology as Anthropology."  In Archaeology Is Anthropology, edited by S. D. Gillespie and D. L. Nichols.  Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association No. 13, pp. 87-97. 2003 

"Archaeology Is Anthropology," by  S. D. Gillespie, R. A. Joyce, and D. L. Nichols. In Archaeology Is Anthropology, edited by S. D. Gillespie and D. L. Nichols.  Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association No. 13, pp. 155-169. 2003 

"Body and Soul among the Maya: Keeping the Spirits in Place." In The Space and Place of Death, edited by H. Silverman and D. Small. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No. 11, pp. 67-78.  2002. 

"Middle Formative Domestic Ritual at Chalcatzingo, Morelos", by D. C. Grove and S. D. Gillespie.  In Domestic Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by P. Plunket, pp. 11-19.  Los Angeles: UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Monograph 46. 2002 

"The Archaeology of Meaning."  In Social Sciences and Humanities, in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. EOLSS Publishers, Oxford, UK.  2002 (http://www.eolss.net) 

"Las Flores en el Popol Vuh" by S. D. Gillespie and A. L. E. de MacVean. Revista Universidad del Valle de Guatemala 12 (Dec.):10-17. 2002 

"Agency, Personhood, and Mortuary Ritual: A Case Study from the Ancient Maya."  Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 2001 

"Beyond Kinship: An Introduction." In Beyond Kinship: Social and Material Reproduction in House Societies, edited by R. A. Joyce and S. D. Gillespie. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2000 

"Lévi-Strauss: Maison and Société à Maisons." In Beyond Kinship: Social and Material Reproduction in House Societies, edited by R. A. Joyce and S. D. Gillespie. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2000 

"Maya "Nested Houses": The Ritual Construction of Place." In Beyond Kinship: Social and Material Reproduction in House Societies, edited by R. A. Joyce and S. D. Gillespie. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2000 

"The Monuments of Laguna de los Cerros and Its Hinterland." In Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica, edited by J. E. Clark and M. E. Pye. Studies in the History of Art. Washington, DC: Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. 2000 

"Rethinking Ancient Maya Social Organization: Replacing 'Lineage' with 'House.'"  American Anthropologist 102.  2000 
        Winner of the 2002 Gordon R. Willey Award, given by the Archeology Division of the American Anthropological Association

"Olmec Thrones as Ancestral Altars: The Two Sides of Power. In Material Symbols: Culture and Economy in Prehistory, edited by J. E. Robb, pp. 224-253. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 26. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University. 1999 

"Deity Relationships in Mesoamerican Cosmologies: The Case of the Maya God L," by. S. D.Gillespie and R. A. Joyce. Ancient Mesoamerica 9:279-296. 1998 

"The Aztec Triple Alliance: A Postconquest Tradition." In Native Traditions in the Postconquest World, edited by E. H. Boone and T. Cummins, pp. 233-263. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. 1998 

"Gendered Goods: The Symbolism of Maya Hierarchical Exchange Relations," by S. D. Gillespie and R. A. Joyce. In Women in Prehistory: North America and Mesoamerica, edited by C. Claassen and R. A. Joyce, pp. 189-207. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 

"Llano del Jícaro: An Olmec Monument Workshop." Ancient Mesoamerica 5: 231-242. 1994 

"Power, Pathways, and Appropriations in Mesoamerican Art." In Imagery and Creativity: Ethnoaesthetics and Art Worlds in the Americas, edited by D. S. Whitten and N. E. Whitten, Jr., pp. 67-107. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1993 

"Ballgames and Boundaries." In The Mesoamerican Ballgame, edited by V. L. Scarborough and D. R. Wilcox, pp. 317-345. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1991