ASU archaeologist earns Dumbarton Oaks Fellowship

Professor Barbara Stark, an archaeologist in Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change, has been awarded a Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Fellowship for spring 2010. This is the first outside award associated with the multidisciplinary Urban Organization through the Ages project of the university’s Late Lessons from Early History initiative. It will enable Stark to pursue comparative research on gardens and open spaces in connection with her archaeological settlement research in the tropical lowlands of Veracruz, Mexico, as well as facilitate the comparative understanding of open spaces in urban neighborhoods. Stark is a specialist in the origins and developmental trajectories of complex societies in Mesoamerica.

The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, a Washington, D.C., institution administered by Harvard University, supports global scholarship in three areas: Byzantine studies, garden and landscape studies and Pre-Columbian studies. The Pre-Columbian program focuses on the art and archaeology of ancient Mexico, Central America and Andean South America through the 16th century. Residential fellowships, symposia, workshops, publications and exhibitions are funded by Dumbarton Oaks, which includes a museum, public gardens and an extensive library in the Georgetown area.