Stephanie Michelle Strauss

The ACLS H. and T. King Fellowship in Ancient American Art and Culture will support ongoing research into the invention, display, and design of hieroglyphic texts and narrative art in early Mesoamerica. While most epigraphic studies center discussions of writing in the Americas from the perspective of the Maya or the Mexica (“Aztec”), this project takes Formative Gulf Coast visual culture as a center from which to survey the topic. This endeavor combines the author’s experience in Mesoamerican epigraphy with her subject-area expertise in Formative era visual culture. Through an exploration of the indexical fields of text, image, and material practice, “Inscribing Power: The Materiality of Script in Early Mesoamerican Art” follows the roots of indigenous American writing as they stretch deep into the past.