What I do
I study social aspects of the environment, especially how inequality, politics, and worldviews are wrapped up in relationships with water.
Professional Biography
Prior to joining DU, Grauer was a postdoctoral scholar in the Archaeology Center at Stanford University. Grauer's research focuses on water politics and community resilience in Mesoamerica through material culture, landscape survey, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and oral histories. Her works examines how Indigenous ontologies enabled equal access to water during periods of rapid political and environmental change in the past. The goal in this work is to situate present-day environmental injustices as the products of specific historical and political processes, rather than being “natural” or inevitable.
Degree(s)
Ph.D., Anthropology, Northwestern University, 2021
M.A., Anthropology, Northwestern University, 2017
B.A., Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, 2012
Research
Dr. Grauer is the co-founder of two archaeological projects in northern Belize: the Aventura Archaeology Project (AAP) in 2015 and the New River Island Project (NRIP) in 2023. Her research with AAP examined household access to water at the ancestral Maya city of Aventura, and she found that equitable access to water fostered community longevity during times of scarcity. Her ongoing research with NRIP examines a riverine Maya community and the strategies people employed to persist amidst environmental change, political upheaval, and colonialism. Both projects center community engagement, and she continuously collaborates with the Belize Institute of Archaeology, local heritage leaders, and stakeholders to develop and host public events such as the annual Aventura Archaeology Fair in San Joaquin village. Her research has been funded by National Geographic, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Society for American Archaeology.
Featured Publications
Grauer, Kacey and Zachary Nissen (2025) “Resilience on the River: Introducing the New River Island Project.” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology Volume 19: 97-105.
Grauer, Kacey (2023) “Introduction: Archaeologies of and for Environmental Justice.” And “Challenges with and Possibilities of Archaeology of and for Environmental Justice: Reflections from Aventura.” The SAA Archaeological Record, 23(2).
Liu, Li, Yahui He, Kacey Grauer, and Yuyang Wang (2023) “Identifying indigenous bast fibers for archaeological research in East Asia.” Archaeological Research in Asia, 36(2023): 100476.
Grauer, Kacey (2021) “Heterarchical political ecology: Commoner and elite (meta)physical access to water at the ancient Maya city of Aventura, Belize.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 62: 101301.
Grauer, Kacey (2020) “Active environments: Relational ontologies of landscape at the ancient Maya city of Aventura, Belize.” Journal of Social Archaeology, 20(1): 74-94.
