For additional information please contact:

Lillian Guerra, Ph.D., Professor of Cuban & Caribbean History
Department of History, University of Florida
lillian.guerra@ufl.edu

Scholars studying the Classic Maya have long been fascinated by the role of the environment in understanding the rise, fall, and fluorescence of Maya society. First perceived as a limiting environment, the landscape was used to frame a hidden and mysterious civilization with empty and dispersed ceremonial centers. Fifty years ago, scholars working at Tikal, Guatemala challenged these interpretations, offering new perspectives about the relationship between Maya cities and their landscapes.

The UF Synergies series features informal talks by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere’s Rothman Faculty Summer Fellows, Tedder Doctoral Fellows, and Rothman Doctoral Fellows. Fellows will speak for 20 minutes in length about their funded work, leaving ample time for questions and discussion. Talks are paired across disciplinary boundaries to stimulate discussions about threads and connections across research areas and allow for synergies of ideas to emerge in interdisciplinary conversations.