Cristian Figueroa

Cristian Figueroa (he/him/Él) is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He earned an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts, focusing on Social and Behavioral Sciences, from the College of the Sequoias, and he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with Distinction from the University of California, Berkeley.

Cristian's research encompasses a broad range of topics across the Americas. His previous experiences include the examination of early colonial documents from Central America and the analysis of excavation records and lithic artifacts from Honduras. He has investigated questions related to social identity and physical landscapes through ethnographic and community-focused archaeological excavations in Ecuador (Proyecto Arqueológico Ríos Culebra-Colín) and has conducted urban household excavations at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palenque, Mexico (Proyecto Regional de Palenque). Furthermore, Cristian has served as a field excavation supervisor, leading archaeological excavations that focused on the late Classic collapse of the Rio Viejo polity in Oaxaca, Mexico (Río Verde Archaeological Project).

Cristian currently serves as the Spanish Translator for the 2016 Rio Verde Settlement Project. He is also actively engaged in research in Nicaragua, investigating questions related to Indigenous social identity as well as interregional exchange and migration through the Archaeological Project of the Municipality of Corn Island.

His forthcoming research initiative will take place in the Sonora region of Mexico, collaborating with the Comcáac Indigenous community. The focus will be on examining the ways in which individuals' social identities are influenced by their geographical context, as well as how these identities evolve over time and in response to migration. Additionally, the project will explore, through an anthropological perspective, how cultural identity can promote the acceptance of diverse aspects of social identities, including transnational, indigenous, gender, and sexual identities.