CASA HERRERA

ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA
S T U DY A B R O A D FA L L 2 011

EXPLORE MAYA CULTURE

WITH A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF STUDENTS
ARCHAEOLOGY • MAYA WRITING • HISTORY • RELIGION & CULTURE
 Join students from around the world to
learn about Latin America, Mesoamerica and
Maya writing at Casa Herrera, The University
of Texas at Austin’s center for learning and
scholarship in the heart of Antigua, Guatemala.

Casa Herrera brings interrelated disciplines together to study Pre-Columbian art, archaeology,
history and culture in a historically significant and picturesque setting. The facility, which
dates to 1608, is one of the great, original houses of colonial Antigua.

WORLD-RENOWNED LOCATION

Located in the central highlands of Guatemala,

Antigua was once the colonial Spanish capital of
Central America. Today, the city is a UNESCO
Heritage site and one of the most important
cultural and artistic centers in Central America.

Antigua draws international visitors WORLD-RENOWNED UNIVERSITY

interested in exploring its ancient ruins and
well-preserved 16th century architecture.
Students delve into the city’s vibrant culture
at area museums, art festivals and traditional
Latin American celebrations.
Studying at Casa Herrera provides
opportunities to venture outside the classroom to
explore culturally significant sites, including San
Francisco Cathedral, Guatemala City and the
pre-Columbian Mesoamerican ruins at Iximché.
The University of Texas at Austin is one of the
most respected and largest public universities
in the United States, comprising 21,000 faculty
and staff members, 17 colleges and schools and
more than 50,000 students.
With more than 3,500 research projects,
90 research units and annual research funding
exceeding $400 million, the university is one of
the nation’s leading public research universities.

WORLD-RENOWNED PROGRAMS

Throughout the world, The University of Texas

at Austin is known for its long-standing and
personal connections throughout Latin America.
Intellectual thought leaders from across campus
come together for rich and relevant research
through university centers, most notably, the
Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American
Studies, which is housed in the College of Liberal
Arts, and The Mesoamerica Center, which is
housed in the College of Fine Arts.
FALL 2011 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (12-15 CREDITS)
Courses will be taught primarily in Antigua, with field trips to nearby museums and archaeological sites.

The Archaeology of Mesoamerica

(3 credits) offers an in-depth analysis of
ancient cultures through archaeology, art
and history. Students explore the 3,000-year
development of Mesoamerica, beginning with the
first chiefdoms and city-states of the Olmec and
Zapotec cultures, and continuing with the ancient
Maya and later Aztec cultures of central Mexico.
Students analyze the meaning of “Mesoamerica”
as a cultural label and examine how the institutions
and worldviews of these ancient peoples still
resonate strongly in the expressions and identities
of indigenous people throughout Mexico, Central
America and the United States.

Ancient Maya Writing and History

(3 credits) focuses on the decipherment of
ancient hieroglyphic writing and the examination
of ancient texts as historical and cultural source-
material. Students gain a solid, working knowledge
of the ancient script, the language in which it was
written, and the history and methodology underlying
the decipherment that took place in the final
decades of the 20th century. Maya glyphs are widely
considered the single most complex writing system
ever devised. With its built-in capacity for exhibiting
scribal artistry and idiosyncrasy, the Maya writing
system’s inherent complexity has no equal among
ancient or modern scripts.

DAVID STUART, the Linda and David Schele Chair in the Art and
Writing of Mesoamerica, is an internationally recognized professor of
Mesoamerican art, archaeology and epigraphy.
Stuart began deciphering Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions when he
was eight years old. At 18, he earned the MacArthur Fellowship, becoming
the youngest recipient of the prestigious “genius grant.” Stuart and his
longtime mentor Linda Schele, the late Maya researcher and professor at the university,
are prominently featured in Nova’s “Cracking the Maya Code” on PBS.
 History of Guatemala (3 credits) offers an in-depth history
from the pre-conquest period through the 20th century. Students will
examine the threads that weave though the course of Guatemalan history,
including the relations between metropolis and periphery during the
colonial era, the Liberal and Conservative discourses of state formation
during the 19th century, the “modernizing” programs of the 20th
century, and the polemical politics from the 1970s through the 1990s.
The course will examine how the Guatemalan state’s ambiguous
relationship with the majority Maya population, power relations
between classes, and guiding political imperatives change over time.
In addition, students will explore how outside actors, such as the United
Fruit Company, German coffee growers, the United States government,
and Catholic and Protestant churches have affected pivotal episodes in
Guatemala’s history.

Religion and Culture in Latin America

(3 credits) challenges students to identify how religion
has helped to determine identity and culture in Latin
America, from colonial times to the present. Students focus
on the historical influence of the institutional Roman Catholic
Church as a colonial agent in the region, but they also analyze
the symbiotic relationship that emerged between Christianity
and local cultures. Through observation and fieldtrips, students
will examine expressions of popular religion particular to
Guatemala, including the survival of pre-Hispanic Mayan
rituals, Maya syncretic religious expressions, progressive
Catholicism and Pentecostal “health and wealth” theology.

VIRGINIA GARRARD-BURNETT, the Andrew W. Mellon

Foundation Faculty Fellow in Latin American Studies #1, specializes in the
religious history of Latin America with a focus on Protestantism and new
religious movements.
A Guatemalan newspaper has described her as a “worldwide authority on the
history of Protestantism in Guatemala.” She is the author of “Protestantism in
Guatemala: Living in the New Jerusalem” and is co-editing the Cambridge History of Religion in
Latin America.

Spanish or Mayan Language (3 credits)

FOR MORE INFORMATION

OR AN APPLICATION
visit www.utmesoamerica.org/casa or contact:
Laurie Young, Senior Program Coordinator, International Office
lauriebyoung@austin.utexas.edu | (512) 475-7021