Annabeth Headrick
Associate Professor and Director
Art History—Precolumbian
What I do
Director, School of Art and Art History
Associate Professor of Precolumbian Art
Specialization(s)
Mesoamerican Art, Andean Art, Native American Art, Precolumbian Art, Iconographic Analysis, Socio-political structures of the Ancient Americas
Professional Biography
Annabeth Headrick specializes in the Precolumbian and Native cultures of North, Central, and South America. Her courses include Art of the Maya, Mesoamerican Art, Native North American Art, and Art of the Andes. She also teaches seminars on gender, ceramics, and the codices in the Precolumbian Americas as well as courses on contemporary Native North American art and art and the environment. Her research and her courses incorporate art, architecture, anthropology, and archaeology in a synthetic and comprehensive way. She is the author of The Teotihuacan Trinity: the Sociopolitical Structure of an Ancient Mesoamerican City and her other publications consider ancestors, deities, and ritual in Mesoamerica. Her current work continues with issues surrounding Teotihuacan as well as the city of Chichén Itzá.
Degree(s)
- Ph.D., Art History, The University of Texas, Austin, 1996
- MA, Art History, University of Texas, Austin, 1991
- BA, History and Political Science, Colorado College, 1985
Professional Affiliations
- College Art Association
- Society for American Archaeology
- Association for Latin American Art
Featured Publications
. (2007). The Teotihuacan Trinity: The Sociopolitical Structure of an Ancient Mesoamerican City. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
. (2018). The Osario of Chichen Itza: Where Warriors Danced in Paradise. In L. Wren, K. Spencer, C. Kristan-Graham, & T. Nygard (Eds.), Landscapes of the Itza: Archaeology and Art History at Chichen Itza and Neighboring Sites (pp. 198-225). Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press.
. (2003). Butterfly War at Teotihuacan. In M. K. Brown & T. Stanton (Eds.), Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare (pp. 149-170). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
. (1999). The Street of the Dead..It Really Was: Mortuary Bundles at Teotihuacan. Ancient Mesoamerica, 10, 69-85.
Presentations
- Out of Clay and into Stone: The Emergence of Warriors at Chichen Itza
- Gold, Turquoise, and Feathers: How the Merchant-Warriors of Chichen Itza Sported the New Bling
- Butterflies Take Wing: Ritual and Symbolism in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
- Quetzalcoatl and His Mountain: the Origins of a Mesoamerican Paradigm for Political Power
- Empire at Chichen Itza Revisited
Awards
- Association for Latin American Annual Book Award, Association for Latin American Art
