About Sarah Newman

I am an anthropologist and archaeologist and currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. My research draws on archaeological, historical, and art historical methods and evidence to think about anthropological and environmental questions, including explorations of histories of waste and reuse, long-term landscape transformations, and human-animal relationships. Most of my research has focused on Latin America, especially in Mesoamerica and the ancient Maya, but I am also involved in comparative projects to study landscapes, infrastructure, and environment in other parts of the world (Turkey and Jordan). I am interested in the intellectual history of archaeology and the ways we generate knowledge about the past. Finally, I am currently writing a new book on the physical traces of animal histories and how they might be studied archaeologically.