Chelsea Blackmore

Biography, Education and Training

Professor Blackmore’s research explores how past societies constructed social difference, specifically in terms of class, kinship, and gendered identities. While her primary research focuses on Mesoamerica, she has begun a new project at the Spanish Mission site of San Antonio de Padua (Jolon, California). Investigations consider the role of indigenous agency to enact change within the colonial landscape. Research at the site will become the basis for an annual archaeological field school, starting in the summer of 2012.

Dr. Blackmore received her Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of California, Riverside in 2008. Her dissertation research examined the connective processes between ancient Maya state and class formation through an analysis of materials and excavations conducted at the Chan archaeological site between 2001 and 2008. Between 2008 and 2010, she held a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley.

Teaching Interests

Mesoamerican archaeology, identity formation, complex societies, class and state formation, gender, and feminist/queer theory

Courses Taught