Marc Zender received his PhD from the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology of the University of Calgary in 2004. He has since taught at the University of Calgary (2002-2004) and Harvard University (2005-2011), and is now an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University, New Orleans, where he leads classes in linguistics, epigraphy, and Mesoamerican indigenous languages (e.g., Yucatec Maya, Classical and Modern Nahuatl) since September 2011.

Professor Zender’s research interests include anthropological and historical linguistics, comparative writing systems, and archaeological decipherment, with a regional focus on Mesoamerica (particularly Mayan and Nahuatl/Aztec).

He is the author of several books and dozens of academic articles exploring these subjects. Since 1997, he has conducted archaeological, linguistic, and epigraphic research at numerous sites across the Maya area.

He is the project epigrapher for the Proyecto Arqueológico de Comalcalco (in Tabasco, Mexico) and, since 2011, has been a member of the American Foreign Academic Research Project at Cahal Pech, Belize.

In addition to his research and writing, he is the editor of The PARI Journal, the director of Precolumbia-Mesoweb Press, and (with Joel Skidmore) manager of Mesoweb, a major Internet resource for Mesoamerican cultures.