Karla L. Davis-Salazar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Tel: (813) 974-6339
Fax: (813) 974-2669
Email: kdavis@cas.usf.edu
My
current research focuses on human-environment interaction in the past and in
the present. I am particularly
interested in the interplay between landscape histories and resource management
(especially water), and their implications for sustainable resource use. These
interests lead me to use archaeological data to inform present-day
environmental issues through a long-term perspective.
Currently,
I co-direct (with E.
Christian Wells and José E. Moreno-Cortes) the Palmarejo Community
Archaeological Project and Field School in northwest Honduras, which
focuses on reconstructing past and present settlement systems, land use
strategies, and water resource management among agrarian communities. This
project provides opportunities for graduate and undergraduate research in
archaeology and cultural anthropology.
My
previous archaeological fieldwork took place at the Classic Maya site of Copán,
Honduras, and focused on issues of social complexity, spanning the development
of social differentiation during the Early Preclassic period to the emergence
and institutionalization of kingship during the Early Classic to the
redistribution of social and political power associated with resource
management during the Late Classic. These topics still are of great interest to
me.
Courses
I teach cover such diverse topics as environmental anthropology, the
archaeology of ancient states, pedagogy in anthropology, the ancient Maya, and
archaeological field and laboratory methods.