Neotropical Anthropology Laboratory
The Neotropical Anthropology Laboratory is an interdisciplinary sphere that brings into sustained conversation advanced ethnographic practice, archaeological science, biomedical collaboration, historical reconstruction, digital humanities, archival stewardship, reflective pedagogy, and community reciprocity. The laboratory cultivates a rigorous analysis of how human lives in Amazonia, Mesoamerica, the Andean region, and the broader Neotropical world, are actively being shaped by political rupture, ecological precarity, metabolic strain, historical erasure, and the fragile architectures of moral experience.
Visual Works in Memory and Justice
Raúl F. Pérez Lira from the American Studies Department at the University of Kansas will present at the NAL Speaker Series on Friday, October 23 at 1:30pm CDT via Zoom.
In his work as a journalist, Raúl F. Pérez Lira covered stories related to human rights in the state of Chihuahua, México. In this role, he got close enough to these stories to spark work that is different from the traditional model of journalism and breaks with the journalist-source dichotomy. His continuous coverage of families in search of their disappeared relatives and the struggle of indigenous communities for land recognition led to more horizontal and collaborative stories, which forced him to transform his practice. In this presentation, he reflects on this challenge and the collaborative nature of two visual projects: a collection of photographs depicting the presence of the absence in families of disappeared people in Mexico; and a short documentary in which a Raramuri woman visits elders in her community to engage in conversations about memory and their struggle for territory. Memory, justice, archive/repertoire, author, and territory are some of the concepts entangled in this narration.
Andean & Amazonian Research Clusters
Amazonian Health & Metabolic Justice
This cluster examines metabolic disorders, food systems, ecological transformation, embodied vulnerability, and the pervasive effects of structural inequality. Projects such as the Munichis Healthy Rice Study exemplify the laboratory’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration that situates anthropology within conversations joining endocrinology, nutritional science, public health, Indigenous knowledge systems, and ecological analysis. The cluster advances KU’s dedication to global health equity through research that is scientifically grounded and ethically informed.
Digital Amazonia Archive & Ethical Data Governance
This cluster stewards the Digital Amazonia Archive, developing digital infrastructure rooted in Indigenous data sovereignty, open access principles, ethical metadata frameworks, cultural reciprocity, collaborative curation, long-term preservation, and epistemic justice. It aligns with KU’s commitment to responsible data governance while creating a scholarly resource that is sustainable, ethically responsive, and globally significant.
Andean-Amazonian Archaeological Interface
This cluster explores the deep temporal interplay between Andean and Amazonian societies. Through excavation, landscape analysis, material culture study, paleobotanical evidence, and collaborative heritage practice, it reveals the longue durée histories through which regional societies have mutually constituted one another. Contemporary ethnography gains analytical depth when situated within these ancestral temporalities, offering KU a richly stratified historical counterpoint to present-day inquiry.
Mesoamerican Political Ecology
This cluster investigates the convergent forces of climate volatility, land dispossession, migration, labor exploitation, intimate survival strategies, local resistance, and subaltern knowledge production. It foregrounds feminist critique, Indigenous sovereignty, and the lived precarity of working lives across the Mesoamerican isthmus. The scholarship generated here provides KU with a comparative foundation for hemispheric inquiry oriented toward the political ecology of vulnerability and resilience.
Student Field Site: Quito, Ecuador, 2025
Thematic Research Clusters
Health & Human Rights
This cluster examines the nexus of illness, governance, care delivery, legal frameworks, Indigenous health sovereignty, public health practice, civic dignity, and structural constraint. Through this work, KU’s established strengths in health research are enriched by anthropology’s capacity to illuminate the social conditions that shape possibilities for life and wellbeing. The cluster foregrounds questions of voice, access, justice, personhood, and political accountability.
Peace & Reconciliation
This cluster attends to post-conflict contexts where memories of violence permeate political life, moral imagination, public narrative, and intimate experience. It explores testimony, moral repair, archival revelation, narrative reconstruction, civic pedagogy, practices of remembrance, and the fragile labor of social healing. KU’s global engagement is strengthened through contributions to comparative scholarship on reconciliation, transitional justice, and the ethics of witnessing.
Museology & Memory Studies
This cluster engages museums, archival institutions, community curators, memory initiatives, cultural authorities, and visual epistemologies. It interrogates representation, narrative authority, ethical display, visual sovereignty, collaborative curation, historical silences, and the commitments enacted through acts of remembrance. Partnerships with institutions such as the Spencer Museum of Art enable shared curatorial projects that are scholarly, decolonial, and reflexive.
Community Wellbeing & Engaged Public-Facing Anthropology
This cluster advances research addressing community-defined aspirations for wellbeing, educational possibility, environmental stewardship, cultural continuity, local governance, civic vitality, and collective flourishing. It cultivates participatory methodologies, visual platforms, pedagogical collaborations, public scholarship, and research outputs that reach audiences beyond the academy.
Strategic Opportunities for Institutional Growth
Neotropical Speaker Series
The laboratory will inaugurate a hybrid Neotropical Speakers Series in spring 2026. This series will convene scholars, artists, activists, scientists, curators, community leaders, and cultural intellectuals from across the Americas. It will enhance graduate training, enrich undergraduate education, cultivate hemispheric partnerships, and elevate KU’s profile as a center of global scholarship. The series will establish a public forum where ideas circulate across borders, languages, and disciplines.
NAL Occasional Papers
The laboratory will develop a publication series for concise, analytically rigorous reflections on urgent issues including Indigenous health, climate vulnerability, metabolic inequality, memory politics, food sovereignty, cultural heritage, and ecological transformation. This series will serve as a venue for rapid scholarly dissemination, a pedagogical resource for KU students, a platform for public engagement, and an institutional mechanism for informing policy conversations on Neotropical affairs.
Annual Neotropical Anthropology Conference
The laboratory will host an annual hybrid conference bringing together scholars, community partners, Indigenous leaders, curators, archivists, artists, activists, policy analysts, and students. The conference will showcase research in progress, stimulate collaborative initiatives, nurture interdisciplinary networks, amplify KU’s visibility, and consolidate the university’s position as a central node in hemispheric intellectual exchange.
Graduate & Undergraduate Training
The laboratory provides a comprehensive training environment aligned with KU’s commitment to student development and scholarly excellence. Graduate students will be integrated into research clusters that combine conceptual sophistication, field engagement, collaborative publication, grant development, visual documentation, ecological monitoring, archival curation, rigorous methodology, and ethical deliberation.