Michael Callaghan

Michael Callaghan is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Central Florida.  He specializes in the study of the ancient Maya with an emphasis on ceramic analysis. Dr. Callaghan graduated with his BS (1998) and PhD (2008) from Vanderbilt University. His work on archaeology and ceramic analysis have been published in the journals Ancient Mesoamerica, Latin American Antiquity, Journal of Archaeology Science: Reports, and PLosOne among others. He is also author of the The Ceramic Sequence of the Holmul Region, Guatemala (University of Arizona Press).  He is the co-author of the Open Educational Resource (OER) Exploring our World through General Anthropology (UCF STARS) and co-editor of The Inalienable in the Archaeology of Mesoamerica (Archaeological Publications of the American Anthropological Association). Dr. Callaghan’s research also appears in many book chapters of edited volumes published by university presses.  Dr. Callaghan is currently the co-director of the UCF El Mirador LiDAR Project, which uses Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to identify cultural features in a 500 square km area of the Mirador region (including the site of El Mirador), for purposes of mapping, ground-truthing, and excavation.  Prior to his work at Mirador, Callaghan was co-director of the Holtun Archaeological Project, where he investigated the development of social inequality as it relates to crafted objects, public ritual, household activities, and monumental architecture at the site of Holtun, Guatemala. In the past ten years, Dr. Callaghan has received over 1 million dollars in research grants from the Fundación Patrimonio Cultural y Natural Maya (PACUNAM), the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, National Geographic Society/WAITT Program, and UCF.  At UCF, Dr. Callaghan directs the research of post-doctoral scholars, PhD students, and undergraduate honors students.  He teaches courses for graduate and undergraduate students in the areas of General Anthropology, Ceramic Analysis, Maya Iconography, Ethics in Anthropology, Archaeological Pseudo-science, and the material culture of Walt Disney World Theme Parks in Florida.