Jean-Paul Rojas

Graduate Student

Specializations

Anthropological archaeology; archaeometry; Isthmo-Colombian Area; Caribbean; migration; interregional interaction and long-distance exchange; social identity; iconography; ceramics; GIS

Hailing from Miami, Florida, Jean-Paul Rojas holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Franklin & Marshall College with broad training in the anthropological archaeology of Latin America and the Caribbean. Several of his past research experiences include using satellite imagery and GIS to investigate how contemporary Uru communities experience the changing waterscape of the upper Desaguadero River of highland Bolivia and Peru (Proyecto Arqueológico Machaca-Desaguadero), community-based ethnographic work and archaeological excavation of the Valdivia and Manteño cultures of coastal Ecuador (Proyecto Arqueológico de los Ríos Culebra-Colín), and the household archaeology of urban neighborhoods at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palenque, Mexico, in collaboration with Ch’ol Maya community members (Proyecto Regional de Palenque). As a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt, Jean-Paul investigates migration, interregional interaction and long-distance exchange, and social identity across the pre-contact Isthmo-Colombian Area and Greater Caribbean.