Dr Alexander Geurds

geurds
Associate Professor in Middle and South American Archaeology
Wolfson College
+44 (0)1865 278292
alexander.geurds@arch.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests

Regionally, my focus is on the archaeology of Middle and South America, where I study stone sculpture practices, monumental architecture, and mound building, alongside the potential for interregional networks of contact. Theoretically, I engage with thinking on material culture in, and through, regional archaeological field research, including survey and excavation, as well as in museum settings. I am also concerned with critically examining contemporary heritage dynamics involving both archaeological objects and the archaeological process itself.

 

Geographic Areas

Middle and South America

Research Profile

Alexander Geurds is Associate Professor and Senior Researcher in the School of Archaeology and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University. He also holds a position as Assistant Professor Adjunct at the University of Colorado (Boulder) and currently serves as Academic Director of the Netherlands Research School for Archaeology ARCHON. He is the founding editor of the book series ‘The Early Americas: History and Culture’ at Brill Publishers.

Alexander is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society and a National Geographic Society Explorer. His research in parts of Central America is consistently supported by external grants, including three National Geographic grants. After obtaining several grant from the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO Rubicon, Veni), his current grants are:

Networked practices of contact: Cultural identity at the Late Prehistoric settlement of Aguas Buenas, Nicaragua, AD 500‐1522 (NWO-2013- 276-60-001 

The Linguistic Past of Mesoamerica and the Andes: A search for early migratory relations between North and South America (ERC-2013-AvG 295918-MesoAndLin(g)k)

Links

•  ERC Advanced Grant MesoAndLin(g)k  

•  Personal page (National Geographic Society) 

•  The Early Americas: History and Culture (Brill Publishers)

Publications
Doctoral Supervision

Current students

Local-scale network and connectivity in in-land water proximity sites of the Maya Lowlands during the Maya periods using emerging technologies

Cristina Gonzalez Esteban | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: John Pouncett and Alexander Geurds
Emancipatory Archaeology: Resilience in the Terminal Classic at Lamanai, Belize (8th to 11th centuries CE)

Guopeng Chen | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Chris Gosden and Alexander Geurds