Dr. Richard Sandoval | Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Ch’orti’ Project travel to Guatemala and Honduras
During Spring 2024, members of the Ch’orti’ Project (faculty and current and former students), traveled to Guatemala and Honduras to conduct meetings and research for the Ch’orti’ Project website, further develop Ch’orti’ community relationships and collect photographic data and survey artifacts in a variety of museums and archeological sites on ancient Maya writing and art.
For the past three years, Lucien Herzog, MSU Denver ’23, Linguistics, B.A. and Emma Britt, MSU Denver ’23, Anthropology B.A., served as primary developers of the project website which serves as a resource for hosting and maintaining previously undigitized and unprepared legacy texts (mostly traditional Ch’orti’ stories) and pedagogical materials as well as linguistic scholarship on Ch’orti’ that is otherwise difficult to access for those without the privileges of Western academia. On the trip, Lucien and Emma were tasked with showcasing the website and eliciting feedback during community meetings.
Sophia Gordon, MSU Denver ’24, Anthropology, B.A., who works in MSU Denver’s Anthropology Ethnography Lab (directed by Dr. Rebecca Forgash) served as one of the main student research assistants on the trip, and was charged with taking hundreds of photographs at the ancient Maya site of Copán (Honduras).
Project Outcomes and Highlights
All project goals were achieved beyond expectations. Most importantly, this trip provided practical research opportunities for three students researchers. They gained valuable field experience in collecting data, developing collegial relationships, and building local-community relationships. Moreover, students used problem-solving approaches to real-world and global situations, and gained professional, intercultural, and cross-linguistic communication skills all while increasing knowledge of the Ch’orti’ community and, more broadly, Guatemala and Copán (Honduras). This practical, hands-on learning experience was also well-documented as both Lucien Herzog and Sophia Gordon, presented at MSU Denver’s Undergraduate Research Conference in April 2024.
- Lucien’s presentation summed up the trip with respect to the website, outlining next steps with respect to the feedback the team received with a focus on implementing these improvements and expansions to the website over the next year.
- Sophia highlighted the photographic materials that were gathered during the trip and future plans for the materials. Photographs will be used to create 3-Dimensional computer/video models using photogrammetry techniques and applications, and both will be published on the Ch’orti’ Project website.
