Andean Lab

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 and currently has projects in the Cuzco area. Her graduate students working the Andes also conduct research in the facilities.  Current lab projects include Central Coast Textile Dyes, Wari Ceramics, Inca Funerary Landscapes, Inca Colonization of the Cañate Valley, the Archaeology of the Inca Civil War, Medieval French Architecture, Inca Vilca Consumption, Inca Women and Feather Art, 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 groups, see this link. Louise Deglin and Alba Menéndez Pereda 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 information on past talks, see this link. AJ Meyer and Lisl Schloepin are co-organizing the working group.

Workshops

The Andean Lab periodically offers workshops on relevant topics.

Upcoming Workshops:

   1. Ceramic/Residue analysis in collaboration with Hans Barnard and the Experimental and Archaeological Sciences Lab.