Ethnographer, linguist, poet, translator, photographer, printmaker

Tulane University, Sixth Annual Maya Symposium, joint presentation with Barbara Tedlock (2009)

University at Buffalo, American Studies Graduate Student Association: Honoring John Mohawk’s Life and Work (2008)

Santa Fe Arts Council: Tyuonyi: A Language Forum (2007)

University at Buffalo Humanities Institute: Taking Risks: Anthropology Meets Poetry (2006).

Brown University, Ancient Studies Program: Epic and History (2006)

Poetry Collection at the University at Buffalo: (Re:)Working the Ground: A Conference on the Late Writings of Robert Duncan (2006)

Humanities Institute of the University at Buffalo, featured in the first annual scholar session: Taking Risks: Anthropology Meets Poetry (2006)

School of American Research, Santa Fe: Writing Culture Planning Seminar (2004)

Northern Arizona University and Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff: 7th Oxford Conference on Archaeoastronomy, panel on Mesoamerica and South America (2004)

City Lore and Poets House, New York City: People’s Poetry Gathering, panel on the politics of translation (2003)

Colgate University: Archaeoastronomy symposium in honor of Anthony F. Aveni (2003)

Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Studies and Byzantine Studies: Saints and Syncretism: Native Religions and the Cult of Saints (2002)

City Lore and Poets House, New York City: People’s Poetry Gathering, moderated one session and presented in three others (2001)

University at Buffalo, Center for the Americas: Borders of the Americas: Rethinking “Our” Modernities, plenary speech (2000)

Harvard University, Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology, Committee on Ethnic Studies, and Native American Program: Ethnopoetics: Prospects and Retrospects (1999)

University at Buffalo, Faculty of Arts and Letters and Faculty of Social Sciences: Mayan Culture at the Millennium (co-organizer with Barbara Tedlock and Geoffrey Braswell, 1998)

University of Minnesota, Dept. of English: Cross-Cultural Poetics, keynote address (1997)

University of Texas at Austin: In their own Write: Native Voices of Mesoamerica (1997)

Brevard Community College (Cocoa, Florida), Institute for Latin American Studies and Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research: 4th Maya Symposium (1996)

Cornell University, Latin American Studies: Anthropology and Performance, commentator for all sessions (1994)

University of Florida, Center for Latin American Studies: The Wisdom of the Maya / La Sabiduría Maya / Ah Idzatil (1994)

Duke University Museum of Art: Theorizing the Past: Art, Writing and Narrative in the Americas (1994)

Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Studies: Earthly Matters II, seminar (1994)

University of Texas at Austin: Second D.J. Sibley Conference on World Traditions of Culture and Art, Cosmology and Natural Modeling Among the Aboriginal Peoples of the Americas (1993)

Bard College: Translation as Cultural Transmission: Toward a Politics and Poetics of Translation (1992)

Williams College: Tenth Annual Northeast Mesoamerica Conference (1992)

University of Texas at Austin: Origins: Creation and Continuity, Mythology and History in Mesoamerica (1992)

National Gallery of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts: Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Divinatory Codices, seminar (1991)

University of Pennsylvania, University Museum: Kingship and Shamanism Among the Maya (1991)

Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Studies: Graphic Systems of Record-Keeping in the New World, seminar (1991)

University at Albany / State University of New York: Eighth Annual Northeast Mesoamerica Conference (1990)

Emory University, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program and Dept. of Spanish: Ethnographic Writing in Latin America (1990)

Colgate University: Round Table on Astronomy in the Mayan Codices (1989)

University of Texas at Austin, Institute of Latin American Studies: Re-Creating the New World Contact: Indigenous Languages and Literatures of Latin America (1989)

University of Michigan, Institute for the Humanities: Translation: Cultural Confrontation and Transformation (1989)

University of Texas at Austin: The Archaeology and Dynastic History of Copán (1989)

University of Wisconsin at Madison: Con-Texts: Orality and Textuality in the Middle Ages (1988)

University at Buffalo: Sixth Annual Northeast Mesoamerica Conference (organized panel, 1988)

University at Buffalo: Editing Reality: A Symposium on the Construction of Social Truth (1988)

University of Pennsylvania, University Museum: New Theories on the Ancient Maya (1987)

Colgate University: Myth and History in Native American Narrative (1987)

Arizona State University: Exit from Babel: Literary Translation in the U.S. (1986)

Cornell University: Performance and Aesthetics Symposium (address, 1985)

Cornell University: Second Annual Northeast Mesoamerica Conference (1984)

National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Institution): Ethnoastronomy (1983)

University of Southern California, Center for the Humanities: A Symposium of the Whole (address, 1983)

New School for Social Research: Poetry and Anthropology (1982)

University of Texas at Austin: Native American Discourse (1982)

Boston University Institute for Philosophy and Religion (discussant for Hans-Georg Gadamer, 1981)

University of Texas at Arlington: Linguistics and the Humanities (raconteur, 1981)

University of Arizona: The New World in the Literatures of the Americas (address, 1979)

Boston University Institute for Philosophy and Religion (address, 1978)

State University of New York at Binghamton: Problems of Reading in Contemporary American Criticism (1978)

University of Southern California, Center for the Humanities: Toward a Theory of the Humanities (address, 1977)

University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Center for Twentieth Century Studies: International Ethnopoetics Symposium (address, 1975)

Ishi Research Center, Boston: Holistic Awareness Symposium (1974)

Emmanuel College Poetry Symposium, Boston (1974)

Georgetown Round Table in Linguistics (1972)

School of American Research Advanced Seminar: New Perspectives on the Pueblos (1969)

Presentations in other countries

Palais des Congres de Montréal, Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, presenter, Montréal, Québec (2011)

Trent University, Dept. of Anthropology, Kenneth Kidd Lecture, Peterborough, Ontario (2010)

Universiteit van Amsterdam, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, symposium to launch the “Writing Culture” issue of Etnofoor (v.21, n.1); gave workshops for M.A. and Ph.D. students, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2009)

National Hellenic Research Foundation, Institute of Byzantine Research, Athens, Greece. Lecture (2008)

University of Aberdeen, Dept. of Social Studies. Aberdeen, Scotland. Lecture (2007)

Scientific and Medical Network, London, England. Lecture (2007)

University of Kent, Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies. Conference on Divination and Dialogue. Canterbury, England (2007)

University of Kent, Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies. Seeing with Different Eyes: A Conference on Cosmology and Divination. Canterbury, England (2006)

Københavns Universitet, Institute for Cross-cultural and Regional Studies. Unveiling the Hidden: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Divination. Copenhagen, Denmark (2005)

Kenyatta University, Literature Department: Conference of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research. Plenary speaker. Nairobi, Kenya (2000)

National University of Mongolia, School of Mongolian Studies: Fifth International Conference of the Society for Shamanistic Research. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (1999)

Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Studi Sociali: Etnografie: testi, immagini, oggetti. Museo Nazionale di Antropologia e Etnologia, Florence, Italy (1998)

Einstein Forum (Potsdam) and Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University (Jerusalem): Dreams and Dreaming in the History of Religions. Jagdschloss Hubertusstock, Brandenburg, Germany (1995)

University of Western Ontario, Dept. of Anthropology: Theorizing the Americanist Tradition. London, Ontario (1995)

Institut für Ethnologie und Afrika-Studien, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz: Anthropology and the Question of the Other. Jagdschloss Niederwald, Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany (1995)

Fundación Xavier de Salas and Extremadura Enclave 92: Between Fact and Memory: Discourse on Culture in the New World. Trujillo, Cáceres, Spain (1992)

Société canadienne d’anthropologie, congrès annuel, Montréal, Québec (1992)

Université de Montréal, Département d’anthropologie, Montréal, Québec (1992)

McGill University, Dept. of Hispanic Studies: Encounters with the “Other”: Spain in the New World. Montréal, Québec (1992)

Moscow State University, Institute for Non-Traditional Medicine, and the Association for the Study of Dreams: Dreaming in Russia: An International Dream Study Meeting, discussion group leader. Moscow, Russian Republic (Aug. 19–26, 1991)

University of Western Ontario, Dept. of Anthropology, London, Ontario (1991)

McMaster University, Dept. of Religion, Hamilton, Ontario (1989)

International Summer Institute for Semiotic and Structural Studies, University of British Columbia: Cultures in Conflict: The Problem of Discourse. Vancouver, B.C. (1988)

Università di Roma “La Sapienza”: La transmissione del sapere: aspetti linguistici e antropologici. Rome, Italy (1986)

Universidade Federal de Pará, Depto. de Antropologia, Belém, Brazil (1985)

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Depto. de Lingüística, Recife, Brazil (1985)

Universidade Federal de Goiás, Depto. de Lingüística, Goiânia, Brazil (1985)

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México: Arqueoastronomía y Etnoastronomía en Mesoamérica. Mexico City (1984)

University of Alberta: Native American Interaction Patterns. Edmonton, Alberta (1982)

International Congress of Americanists, Manchester, England (1982)

Università degli Studi di Urbino, Centro Internazionale di Semiotica e di Linguistica: Oralità: cultura, letteratura, discorso. Urbino, Italy (1980)

International Congress of Americanists, Vancouver, B.C. (1979)

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala: I Congreso sobre el Popol Vuh. Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala (1979)

Northeastern Anthropological Association, Québec, Québec (1978)

Readings

Meridian Gallery, San Francisco (2010)

Garcia Street Books, Santa Fe (2010)

University at Buffalo, Poetics Plus series (2009)

Meridian Gallery, with Barbara Tedlock, as part of the “Poetics of Healing” series sponsored by the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University (2009)

University of California at San Francisco, Medical Humanities Grand Rounds, with Barbara Tedlock, as part of the “Poetics of Healing” series sponsored by the Poetry Center at San Francisco State (2009)

City University of New York Graduate Center, Amie and Tony James Gallery, as part of the “Writing in the Dark” series (2009)

Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo (2006)

Black Oak Books, Berkeley (2006)

PEN New Mexico, Santa Fe (2004)

City Lore and Poets House, New York: People’s Poetry Gathering (2003)

The Kitchen, New York City, birthday surprises for Jerome Rothenberg (2001)

Northeast Modern Language Association, Buffalo (2000)

Science Museum of Minnesota and the Maya Society of Minnesota (1998)

University at Buffalo, Wednesdays at 4:00 series (with Barbara Tedlock) (1994)

A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, Cupertino, California (1993)

Black Oak Books, Berkeley (1993)

Book Passage, Corte Madera, California (1993)

Kepler’s, Menlo Park, California (1993)

Modern Times, San Francisco (1993)

Barnes & Noble, Buffalo (1993)

Old Santa Fe Trail Bookstore, Santa Fe (1993)

The Poetry Project, St. Mark’s in the Bowery, New York City (1993)

Talking Leaves, Buffalo (1993)

Central Park Grill, Buffalo (1993)

Living Batch Bookstore, Albuquerque (1992, 1993)

Buffalo State College, Burchfield Gallery (1992)

Bard College: Translation as Cultural Transmission (1992)

Bard College, Avery Graduate School of the Arts (1991)

Grolier Bookshop and the Ellen La Forge Memorial Poetry Foundation: Adams House, Harvard University (1990)

Red Flannel Series, Central Park Grill, Buffalo (1989, 1990)

American Museum of Natural History and the Touchstone Center: Versions of the Traditional (1984)

University of Southern California, Center for the Humanities: A Symposium of the Whole (1983)

Rio Grande Writers’ Association, Placitas, New Mexico (1981)

Albuquerque Heights Y.M.C.A. (1973)

California Institute for the Arts (1973)

Acme Productions and The Kitchen, New York City: Verbal Musics (1972)

St. John’s College, Santa Fe (1970)

Workshops conducted

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all of the workshops listed below were given jointly with Barbara Tedlock.

University of Texas at Austin, Dept. of Anthropology, Workshop on Writing and Photography, with Craig Campbell (2012)

Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, on Maya hieroglyphic writing, with David LeBrun, Amy Halpern, and Barbara Tedlock (2008)

Body of Santa Fe, on writing about spiritual practices and experiences (2007)

Society for Shamanic Practitioners third annual conference, Phoenicia, New York, on writing practices (2007)

Integrated Healing Arts, Palo Alto, California, on Mayan healing practices (2006)

Body of Santa Fe, on Mayan healing practices (2006)

Ardantane, Jemez Springs, New Mexico, on Mayan divination and healing (2006)

Body of Santa Fe, on Mayan divination and dream interpretation (2006)

University of Kent, Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies, Canterbury, England, on Mayan divination and dream interpretation (2006)

Lucid Arts Foundation, Point Reyes Station, California, on Mayan divination and dream interpretation (2006)

Dream Institute of Northern California, Berkeley, on Mayan divination and dream interpretation (2006)

Maya Weekend, Sedona, Arizona (2005)

Society for Shamanic Practitioners first annual conference, Pacific Grove, California, on Mayan divination and dream interpretation (2005)

American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, on writing and publication (2000)

American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, on writing and publication (1996)

American Anthropological Association, Atlanta, on writing and publication (1994)

American Anthropological Association, Washington, on writing and publication (1993)

Drama

Publications

Books

An Archaeology of Architecture. University of New Mexico Press (2013). Amazon: Kindle edition (2013).

2000 Years of Mayan Literature. With new translations and interpretations by the author. Berkeley: University of California Press (2010).

Rabinal Achi: A Mayan Drama of War and Sacrifice. New York: Oxford University Press (2003). Amazon: Kindle edition (2003).

The Dialogic Emergence of Culture. Edited and introduced with Bruce Mannheim. Urbana: University of Illinois Press (1995).

Breath on the Mirror: Mythic Voices and Visions of the Living Maya. San Francisco: Harper (1993).

Second edition with a new preface. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press (1997).

Touchstone paperback edition. New York: Simon & Schuster (1986).

CD-ROM edition. Library of the Future Series. Garden Grove, CA: World Library (1994).

Revised and expanded edition. New York: Simon & Schuster (1996).

Amazon: Kindle edition (2011).

The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation. University of Pennsylvania Publications in Communication and Conduct. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (1983).

Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion and Philosophy. Edited and introduced with Barbara Tedlock. New York: Liveright/Norton (1975).

Second edition. New York: Liveright/Norton (1992).

Reprint edition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1978).

Second edition, revised and expanded, subtitled The Art of the Zuni Storyteller. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1999).

Books in foreign editions

Book club edition: Vienna, Gütersloh, and Stuttgart: Bücher der Weisheit (1995).

Periodicals edited

Pamphlets

Contributions to periodicals and edited volumes in English

“Stones, Drumbeats, Footprints, and Mystery in the Writing of the Other.” In Astonishment and Evocation: An Ethnographic Kaleidoscope. Festschrift for Stephen Tyler, vol. 2. Edited by Ivo Strecker and Markus Verne. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books (forthcoming).

Preface to Boundary Loot, by Edgar Garcia, p. 5. Scarborough, ME: Punch Press (2012).

“Handspun Syllables / Handwoven Words.” In Spit Temple: The Selected Oral Performances of Cecilia Vicuña, edited by Rosa Alcalá, pp. 287-88. Brooklyn, NY: Ugly Duckling Presse (2012).

“Drawing and Designing with Words.” In Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial and Classic Maya Literature, edited by Kerry Hull and Michael D. Carrasco, pp. 181-193. Boulder: University Press of Colorado (2012).

“Dreamtime: Introduction to the Alcheringa Archive.” Jacket2 reissues. http://jacket2.org/

reissues/dreamtime (2011).

“The Story Told of What Cannot be Told.” In (Re)Working the Ground: Essays on the Late Writings of Robert Duncan, edited by James Maynard, pp. 193-217. Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2011).

“Toward an Archeology of Architecture: An Experiment in Photowriting.” Etnofoor 23(1): 105-123 (2011).

“On the Relationship between Ethnopoetics and Language Poetry.” Formes Poétiques Contemporaines 7: 123-128 (2010).

“Visualizing Space and Time in the Sound of Poetry.” Formes Poétiques Contemporaines 7: 195-206 (2010).

“Ethnopoetics and Language Poetry.” Damn the Caesars 6:131-37 (2010).

“Charlemagne and the 12 Knights of France Meet Lord Five Thunder and the 12 Eagles and Jaguars of Rabinal.” In Epic and History, edited by David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub, pp. 362-80. The Ancient World: Comparative Histories series. Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell (2010).

“Transcription between Languages,” accompanied by a sound recording of Andrew Peynetsa performing “The Boy and the Deer” in Zuni and a written translation into English. Interval(le)s 4, special issue Transcribed Performance: 21st Century Talk Poetics, pp. 871-896. http://www.cipa.ulg.ac.be/intervalles4/contentsinter4.php (2009).

“The Vision of Lady Shark Fin.” Journal of Shamanic Practice 2(2):26-30 (2009).

“And this is the cry of their hearts, here it is / Are k’ut roq’ej kik’ux wa’.” Anonymous poem, translated from K’iche’ Maya. In The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology, edited by Cecilia Vicuña and Ernesto Livon-Grosman, pp. 9-10. New York: Oxford University Press (2009).

“Buzzard / K’uch.” Poem by Humberto Ak’abal, translated from K’iche’ Maya and accompanied by the original text. In The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology, edited by Cecilia Vicuña and Ernesto Livon Grosman, p. 515. New York: Oxford University Press (2009).