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 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 Central Coast Textile Dyes, the Archaeology of the Inca Civil War, Wari Ceramics and related arts, Inca Funerary and Memory Landscapes, Inca adobe design and construction, Islamic influences in Northern Andean architecture, Representation of Diseases in Moche Portrait Vessels 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. Elyse Brusher 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 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)