Michael Callaghan

Biography

Dr. Callaghan is an anthropological archaeologist who studies Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies in an effort to understand the origins of social complexity. His research focuses on the emergence of complexity as it relates to community ritual, social inequality, craft specialization, and long distance exchange. Dr. Callaghan specializes in the study of the ancient Maya with an emphasis on ceramic analysis. He is interested in how ceramic technology, the organization of production systems, and exchange of ceramic vessels contributed to the growth of social complexity. His research is important to scholars who study prehistoric complex societies and who are trying to understand how technology and production contribute to changes in social structure. Dr. Callaghan graduated with his BS (1998) and PhD (2008) from Vanderbilt University. He has published in Ancient Mesoamerica and is co-editor of The Inalienable in the Archaeology of Mesoamerica (with Brigitte Kovacevich). Recent publications include contributions to edited volumes that emphasize the study of ancient ceramics and craft production in complex societies including Ancient Maya Pottery edited by James John Aimers, Gendered Labor in Specialized Economies edited by Sophia Kelley and Traci Ardren, and Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World edited by Cathy L. Costin. His manuscript, The Ceramic Sequence of the Holmul Region, Guatemala, is under contract with the University of Arizona Press. At UCF, Dr. Callaghan teaches courses for graduate and undergraduate students in the areas of General Anthropology, New World Archaeology, Maya Iconography, Popular Archaeology, and Contemporary Archaeology. He is currently developing courses focusing on the study and replication of ancient ceramic technologies with lab components. 

Research Interest

Dr. Callaghan’s current research focuses on the development of social inequality as it relates to crafted objects, public ritual, household activities, and monumental architecture at the site of Holtun, Guatemala. It is part of his long-term research goal to understand how household production (particularly ceramic production) contributed to the development of Maya complex society and political economy at Preclassic-period sites in the Lake Yaxha-Sacnab area in central Guatemala. Dr. Callaghan and the Holtun Project have received research grants from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, National Geographic Society/WAITT Program, and the Missouri University Research Reactor as part of its NSF-subsidy program.