Research Projects

OSEA is committed to supporting innovative research in ethnography and anthropology. Our most recent project is the Heritage Ethnography Field School, which focuses training on the emergent field of ethnography of archaeology and the study of diverse forms of ecological, archaeological, intangible, cultural, and medical-health heritage. Ethnography of Archaeology is a new field of study that is constituted at the interdisciplinary intersections of: heritage studies, tourism studies, archaeology.

Independent Research Projects
Students are expected to come to the program with research interests. These can be general or quite specific. OSEA helps students define and refine their own interests and design their own research. OSEA believes strongly that success must derive from student motivation. Our expert staff guides students to identify their interests and create their own projects.

Students create independent research projects. However, participants also have the option to conceive and create collaborative projects with other students as a team. OSEA specializes in collaborative team research. Forms of collaboration and team research have a wide range of possibilties. Collaborative and team research involves everyone doing a “piece” of a larger “research puzzle” -- but, still there are many models of how this might happen. Sometimes the pieces are like cogs where interdependent is at a high level; or, sometimes the pieces are very autonomous. Participants are given the option of how to design their independent research, whether as an individual, team, or collaborative project. In all cases, the OSEA staff is there to give close supervision and expert guidance.

Topics and Research Issues
OSEA conducts its training programs in ethnography in the community of Pisté for a reason: There are many, many research topics, questions, issues, and problems that can be studied here. Participants are encouraged to read about the history of OSEA, especially about prior research projects. Participants who are interested can pursue further research along the lines of these projects, including: Maya tourism art/artisanry, museum studies, handicraft production; teaching English as a second language, the anthropology of education; community history, life history, memory, and forms of narrative.

The list of possible research areas are nearly endless. Additional potential topics of interest to participants include: Maya healing, natural and alternative forms of medical treatment and belief; youth cultures; Indigenous politics, the state-community interface; cultural ecology, agricultural economy, social impacts of hurricanes and disasters; tourism, development, heritage; the ethnography of archaeology; gender dynamics and womens' roles, gay and lesbian cultures in rural settings; religion, conversion, and the economic basis of religious activities, ritual and belief; race/racial identity, ethnicity, ethnic interactions. This is just a short list to help participants identify what interests and motivates them.

Past Student Research Projects
· Study of Animal Husbandry, including the butchery of animals
· Marriage, attitudes and views toward marriage, sex, and gender relations
· Life History of a prominent Pisté woman
· Religion, religious conversion, and youth participation in protestant churches
· Teaching English as a Second Language
· Transcultural dynamics and processes in TESL classrooms
· Anthropology of Education and the role of family in student success in school
· Production and the iconography of local Piste Maya art
· History of INAH families that lived and worked inside the archaeological zone of Chichén Itza
· Race ideas and attitudes in youth cultures
· The phenomenology of dance (jarana, salsa)
· Gay and cross-dressing lifestyles in Pisté
· Conflicts over cultural property rights in heritage
· Community history in context of tourism development