Guest speaker to address community archaeology and Maya identity revitalization at Lycoming College

Lycoming College will welcome Adolfo Iván Batún-Alpuche, Ph.D., to discuss his work in the field of community archaeology with a talk, entitled, “Yucatec Maya Identity Revitalization Through Three-Tier Collaborative Research.” The talk is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 4:30 p.m., in the Trogner Presentation Room, in the Krapf Gateway Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Batún-Alpuche is licensed in archaeology by Universidad Autónoma of Yucatán. He earned his masters and doctoral degrees in Anthropology from the University of Florida. Currently, he is a professor at Universidad de Oriente in Valladolid, Yucatán, working on community archaeology projects in eastern Yucatán and Cozumel Island. Professor Batún-Alpuche focuses on building collaborative partnerships between archaeologists and the people who live near (and within) places where archaeological research is conducted. Drawing from ongoing community-engaged archaeology in Tahcabo, Yucatán, Batún-Alpuche will discuss the ways that cultural heritage projects can empower local communities and create meaningful connections to the deep histories of where they live.

Batún-Alpuche serves as co-director for the Proyecto Arqueológico Collaborative del Oriente de Yucatán (PACOY) in Tahcabo. This small town in eastern Yucatán has a long history that includes Maya temples, a 16^th century Spanish mission, and is home to a vibrant and diverse community today. With funding from the Archaeological Institute of America, PACOY and the citizens of Tahcabo established a community museum and heritage trail that winds through the streets and past locales deemed historically important by the people of Tahcabo. PACOY is a project supported by InHerit, a nonprofit educational organization that celebrates indigenous heritage through progressive collaborations that educate, conserve, and advocate for native languages, traditions, and rights to the past.

With generous support from the Provost’s Office, Lycoming College is hosting the Latin American Identity(ies) Symposium during Spring 2023. Latin America is a transcultural, multilingual, and multiethnic region with a long history of human occupation. It has become a laboratory for new imaginaries to face problems specific to postcolonial societies, such as poverty, inequality, violence, and current global issues, such as environmental crises. This interdisciplinary, semester-long symposium features three guest speakers that will present snapshots of the transformative power of historically marginalized voices in allowing people in the territories to seek changes through new narratives and positioning inclusion as the guiding principle of social, political, cultural, and economic changes. The lenses of different disciplines show how the region addresses these new and old challenges, abandoning the idea of universal formulas.