European Maya Conferences

31st European Maya Conference: Paris, France – Symposium

“Agency in Mesoamerica”

EMC_logo_31_Paris_2026

The 31st Annual European Maya Conference is organised by Wayeb – the European Association of Mayanists – in cooperation with Paris Nanterre, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Sorbonne University, Centre André-Chastel, École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Centro de Estudios Mexicanos UNAM-Francia, and Archaïos in Paris. The conference will begin with three days of workshops, held from Monday 7th–Wednesday 9th December, and will conclude with a two-day symposium, taking place from Thursday 10th–Friday 11th December 2026. As part of the symposium on Thursday, we are also organising a poster session.

The theme for the 31st European Maya Conference is AGENCY IN MESOAMERICA. The topic will be explored from a variety of perspectives.

During the symposium, we will explore the nature and dynamics of agency in Mesoamerica. The study of agency analyses the mechanisms through which diverse entities gain the power to act, how that power is distributed, and the ways it manifests – from attributing responsibility for actions to its effective execution and impact. It examines the forces at work in societies, their dynamics, and the gradual or abrupt processes of transformations they generate. The notion of “agent” is not restricted to human but extends to non-human entities, including spirits, ancestors, deities, animals, plants, stones, and artefacts.

Drawing on diverse socio-political, domestic, agricultural, artisanal, and everyday contexts – from settlement patterns and (cosmo)diplomatic negotiations embedded in ritual practices and in magical spells to the fabric of collective memory – this meeting explores how the power to act is impulsed, constituted, channelled, contested, and controlled across Mesoamerica. It assesses the sources of these powers, both diachronically and spatially, along with their intensities, directions, and spatiotemporal properties.

Presenters of introductory lectures

  • Harri Kettunen (University of Helsinki): On Agency
  • Marc Zender (Tulane University): Epigraphy
  • Marie Chosson (INALCO / SEDYL) & Valentina Vapnarsky (CNRS – LESC; EPHE): Antropología y lingüística
  • Caroline Cunil (EHESS): Etnohistoria
  • Chloé Andrieu (CNRS-ArchAm) & Daniel Salazar Lama (Archaïos): Arqueología, arquitectura y monumentos

Speakers

  • Jaime Awe (Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University): The Use of Spoliated Monuments as Agents of Power, Sacrality, and Memory in Western Belize
  • Caitlin Earley (Johns Hopkins University): Bound, Beheaded, Buried: Captive Sculpture Persons in Late Classic Maya Art
  • Christophe Helmke (University of Copenhagen): Making Ancestors? Agency and the Relationship between the Living and the Dead in a Classic Maya Household
  • Nancy Martínez (University of California, Los Angeles): Gifts of Fur and Bark: Nonhuman Materiality as Authorship in Codices
  • Héctor Xol Chok (Independent Researcher / Ajtz’ib’ab’ Mam): Agentividad de las máscaras rituales en la cultura q’eqchi
  • Kerry Hull (Brigham Young University): When Birds Decide: Mechanisms of Non-Human Agency in Ancient and Contemporary Maya Prognostication
  • Romain Denimal Labeguerie (LESC-EREA, Université Paris Nanterre): Transducciones del “Tzuultaq’a” a “Madre Tierra” y “lugar sagrado” en comunidades q’eqchi’ del Petén contemporáneo
  • Alejandro Garay Herrera (University of Bonn): A Ghost in the Forest: The Colonial Lacandones in the Memory of the Highland Maya Peoples of Guatemala
  • Lisa Audureau (LESC-EREA): Jugando con el género: cómo los niños mayas yucatecos dan forma a su socialización.
  • Honorine Guichard (Université de Laval): No debemos salvar la lengua, sino a los hablantes: El papel de la música en la preservación de la cultura maya en Yucatán y Quintana Roo
  • Marc Zender (Tulane University): Reconsidering Classic Maya Captivity
  • Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos (Yale University): Tonatiuh and the Tlaxcalteca: Indigenous Agency during the Spanish Invasion of Mexico
  • Giulia Cantisani (École pratique des hautes études): Cuerpos vulnerables. Limitar la agentividad nociva de los espíritus entre los otomíes de la Sierra (México)
  • Morgane Thro (Sorbonne Université, Centre André-Chastel): Más allá de la imposición: recrear y transformar el mundo en la Nueva España
  • Iyaxel Cotjí Ren (University of Texas at Austin): Gobernar juntos: La relación dinámica entre la agencia de los linajes gobernantes y el gobierno colectivo en Kajyub’ y otros ejemplos del altiplano Maya

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