My Biography
Sarah Jackson is an anthropological archaeologist with a research focus on ancient Mesoamerica, and particularly Classic Maya culture. She received the PhD from Harvard University in 2005, and held positions at the University of New Hampshire, the University of Toronto, and the University of Cincinnati before joining the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2023. She currently serves as Dean of Social Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at CU Boulder.
Dr. Jackson focuses on theoretical topics related to materiality and material culture. She is working on reconstructing aspects of a Classic Maya material worldview (i.e., how they understood and saw the materials around them, including the capabilities and identities of objects, object personhood, and the intersections of objects and identities) using data from hieroglyphic and iconographic sources; this work has an applied aspect, in that she is investigating how an understanding of indigenous material perspectives might impact and transform archaeological field practices. These topics, along with an innovative digital field recording system that unites archaeological and Maya views on material culture, are also explored in the field at the site of Say Kah, Belize, where she co-directs a project with Dr. Linda Brown.