I consider myself to be a Mesoamerican Archaeologist who specializes in the Lowland Maya region. My great passion is for Household Archaeology and the investigation of how households are articulated with and foundational for larger social processes like the rise of social inequality and collapse of political systems. I investigate households primarily through the analysis of lithic (stone) material in terms of typological and distributional analyses, as well as chemical sourcing analysis (LA-ICP-MS, pXRF, INAA, etc.). I have also been involved in soil chemistry analysis of domestic and ritual areas and am involved in and interested in lithic replication studies.
Working with Dr. Kovacevich:
I strive to share my passion for my research through graduate training in diverse theoretical and methodological approaches in classroom, field, and laboratory settings. Some of my current research interests include lithic analysis, gender and social identity, household archaeology, chemical compositional analysis, production technology, and social inequality. I engage in collaborative projects with these topics through a variety of methods including ceramic and lithic analysis, geoarchaeology, landscape archaeology, faunal analysis, as well as ethnohistoric and ethnographic research and share these engagements with our graduate students with hands-on experiences that provide them with a basis for conducting scientific archaeological research. In the past my students have received grants from National Geographic Society’s Young Explorer Program, Sigma-Xi grants-in-aid of research, Fulbright IIE, and National Science Foundation Dissertation Enhancement Program.
Dr. Kovacevich is looking for graduate students with an interest in:
- Maya Archaeology
- Household Archaeology
- Lithic Analysis
- Chemical Compositional Analysis
- Technology and Replication Studies
- Social Inequality
- Gender and Social Identity
Examples of projects conducted by Dr. Kovacevich’s students:
- Chemical characterization of obsidian using pXRF
- Chemical characterization of soils from plaza surfaces
- Foodways as a marker of social identity in Honduras
- Lithic replication studies
- Replication of ancient jade working techniques
- GIS and mapping
