USC.edu

Tracie Mayfield

Lecturer
Email tracie.mayfield@usc.edu

Center, Institute & Lab Affiliations

  • Archaeological Institute of America,
  • Heritage Education Network Belize,
  • Institute for Field Research, Field School Director
  • Lambda Alpha Honor Society,
  • Old Providence and Santa Catalina Islands (Colombia) Archaeological Project (OPSCIAP), Principal Investigator
  • Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society,
  • Re-Discovering New Westminster Culture History Foundation, Consultant
  • San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye (Belize) Archaeological Project, Co-Director
  • Society for American Archaeology,
  • Society for Historical Archaeology,
  • Southern California Mesoamerican Network,
  • University of Southern California Archaeological Research Center, Faculty

Biography

EDUCATION

2015 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Ph.D. Anthropology/Archaeology

2009 Illinois State University, Normal, IL M.A. Historical Archaeology

2007 DePaul University, Chicago, IL B.A. Anthropology 

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    I am an anthropological archaeologist with research specializations in historical archaeology, zooarchaeology, ceramics, and ethnography. My experience includes classroom, online, & field-based education; field, museum, & archival collections management; laboratory & field-based project management; public outreach; manuscript editing; collaborative writing & research; department & university level service (volunteer & elected); and graduate & undergraduate mentoring.

    I am the Principal Investigator of the Old Providence and Santa Catalina Islands (Colombia) Archaeological Project [OPSCIAP] and Co-Director of the San Pedro, Ambergris Caye (Belize) Archaeological Project; both of which include experimental education and directed research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

    My current research centers on colonial-period, island and coastal settlements in the Western Caribbean from the Yucatán to South America, along the Miskito Coast. My work seeks to better understand localized strategies for negotiating the intricate relationships between and among variable stakeholders embedded within the colonial-industrial complex, including European governments, military, & industrialists; Indigenous peoples; labor populations (pre- and post-emancipated peoples of African descent, tenant farmers, market & agricultural workers, and indentured servants); and loosely affiliated groups such as Maroons, pirates, buccaneers, and privateers. An important aspect of my community-based research aims to identify the effects of rapidly fluctuating military and administrative power structures on the movement and organization of materials, ideas, and built-environments during the colonial period and how diverse -yet connected- culture histories inform the structures of everyday life for the groups and individuals who currently inhabit these locations.

    Research Keywords

    Colombia, Belize, Caribbean, Mesoamerica, Central America, and South America, anthropological archaeology, historical archaeology, community-based archaeology, zooarchaeology, ceramic analysis

    • (Spring 2023) ANTH 202. Archaeology: Our Human Past, MW 05:00pm – 06:20pm,
    • (Spring 2023) ANTH 202. Archaeology: Our Human Past, W 08:00am – 08:50am,
    • (Spring 2023) ANTH 202. Archaeology: Our Human Past, W 09:00am – 09:50am,
    • (Spring 2023) ANTH 202. Archaeology: Our Human Past, W 10:00am – 10:50am,
    • (Spring 2023) ANTH 202. Archaeology: Our Human Past, M 11:00am – 11:50am,
    • (Spring 2023) ANTH 202. Archaeology: Our Human Past, M 08:00am – 08:50am,
    • (Spring 2023) ANTH 202. Archaeology: Our Human Past, M 09:00am – 09:50am,