Andean Lab
Image credit: Seated male figure bottle, Wari (600-1000 AD), ceramic, Fowler Museum X86.3790
Andean Lab: Fowler Building, Room A332
Faculty Director: Stella Nair
Lab Coordinators: Gabriel Silva Collins and Alba Menéndez Pereda
Postdoctoral Fellows: Solsiré Cusicanqui Marsano and Lauren Pratt
Graduate Students: Gabriel Silva Collins, Alba Menéndez Pereda, Rachel Schloss
Undergraduate Students: Theses
Affiliated Researcher: Luis Muro Ynoñan
Follow the Andean Lab on Instagram!
Contact
Mailing address:
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
308 Charles E Young Dr N
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Phone (Cotsen Main office): 310-206-8934
Andean flower known as cantuta (Cantua buxifolia) in the Valley of Urquillos, in the Departamento de Cusco, Peru. Photo by Alba Menéndez Pereda.
Man's Tunic. Peru, South Coast, Chiquibamba style, Inka, 1470-1532. Costume Council Fund (M.72.68.10) at LACMA.
A study of two houses with thatched roofs and painted white exterior walls (Barranquilla, Colombia). A woman stands in the doorway of the house at center, gazing into the dirt road in the foreground. A fence constructed of saplings is at left, adjoining the house. Gift of Louis P. Church, April 1853. Smithsonian: Accession Number 1917-4-5.
The Andean Lab is directed by Stella Nair, Associate Professor of Indigenous Arts of the Americas in the Department of Art History. Nair has worked in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes for several decades and currently has projects in the Cuzco area. Graduate and undergraduate students working in the Andes also conduct research in the facilities. Current lab projects include the Archaeology of the Inca Civil War, Soundscapes of Inca pilgrimage, Andean adobe design and construction, Andean-Amazonian engagement, 3D digital reconstructions of historic sites, as well as contemporary cultural heritage and community development.
Andean Working Group
Also housed in the Andean Lab, the Andean Working Group draws scholars from across Southern California to the UCLA campus for meetings focused on current research in Andean archaeology, art history, anthropology, and history. For more information on past lectures and events organized by the working group, see this link. Alba Menéndez Pereda and Gabriel Silva Collins are co-organizing the working group.
Indigenous Material and Visual Culture Working Group
Members of the Andean Lab are active in founding and co-directing the Indigenous Material and Visual Culture Working Group (sponsored by the Center for 17th and 18th Centuries Studies). The MVCA is an interdisciplinary working group aimed at facilitating the study of indigenous cultural productions from across the Americas. For more information on lectures and events organized by the group, visit this link.
Workshops
The Andean Lab periodically offers workshops on relevant topics.
Recent workshops
1. "Digital Sketches: Creating Qualitative, Humanistic Maps & Visualizations in Inkscape," led by Dr. Jeremy Mikecz, Dartmouth College (May 2022)
Banner image credit: X65.8730 Panel with crowned figures bearing staffs. Fowler Museum at UCLA. Gift of the Wellcome Trust.
John Moran (American, born England, 1829 - 1902), photographer. House at Turbo., 1871. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XP.706.54
In the News
- Lab Director Interviewed about Nasca/ Moche exhibit
- Postdoctoral scholar Solsiré Cusicanqui joins Andean Lab
- Lab Director Nair leads alumni trip to Peru
- Lab member Luis Muro curates exhibit at the Fowler Museum
- Lab Research Affiliate Luis Muro’s research makes international news
- Alba Menéndez Pereda wins Huntington Fellowship
- Stella Nair gives talk at Columbia University on Inca Land from Water
- Lab Member Rachel Schloss wins SSHRC fellowship
- Lab director Stella Nair named Senior Fellow in Pre Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks.
- Rachel Schloss awarded the George and Barbara Olympios Family Endowed Graduate Research Fellowship for 2023
- Lab member Alba Menéndez Pereda awarded fellowship from the John Carter Brown Library
- Alba Menéndez Pereda awarded de Emilia and Françoise-Auguste de Montequin Fellowship (SAH)
- Lab member Louise Deglin writes essay for the Metropolitan Museum
- Alba Menéndez Pereda gives talk on the Inca Khipu
- Andean Lab members Louise Deglin and Alba Menéndez Pereda are founding members of “Objective Convergence"
- Andean Lab members honored with awards, fellowships, and grants
- Louise Deglin receives the Sylvan C. Coleman and Pam Coleman Memorial Fund Fellowship from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Emilie Liu featured by Art History
- Stella Nair reflects on The Colonial Legacy of Dispossession of Indigenous Lands, History, and Material Culture in the Andes
- Stella Nair and Zrinka Stahuljak reflect on 2020 in a series on intersections between currents events and research at UCLA
- Emilie Liu has been awarded the 2020 Donald F. McCallum Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Senior Award (Department of Art History)
- Watch Manipulating the Senses and Making Art: An Analysis of Inca Vilca Usage by Emilie Nicole Liu in the Undergraduate Research Showcase
- Undergraduate students thrive through collaboration in the Andean Lab
- Louise Deglin at the 2020 Getty Graduate Symposium
- 2018 Edilia and François-Auguste de Montêquin Junior Scholar Fellowship Report by Georgi Kylorenski
This detail from an 1850 atlas shows the distribution of plant life for several mountain ranges, inspired by Humboldt’s illustration of Chimborazo. (David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries)
Inca Urn. Peru, Central Coast, Inka, 1438–1532. The Phil Berg Collection (M.71.73.238) at LACMA.