Many of the research projects in which our faculty are engaged provide students with opportunities to participate directly in anthropological research, ranging from modern cultural studies to excavation of prehistoric primate fossils. While not every project is open to undergraduate students, Baylor anthropologists strongly encourage their majors to get involved in ongoing research. The following are ongoing faculty research projects:

Caciques for a neoliberal age: Mayan entrepreneurs and the urban informal sector in Guatemala City A study of rural-born Maya who utilize traditional Maya kinship networks and economic strategies to build thriving retail empires on the streets of Guatemala City.

Dancing for the Stars: Traditional Mayan Dancers in late Capitalist Guatemala A study of a cohort of young Mayan men who participate in traditional dance dramas in their rural home of Momostenango while taking on onerous economic burdens to maintain their traditional community culture.

Discarded People and Discarded Things: Rewriting Waco's History The public archaeology program at Baylor has partnered with the Waco History Project, established to integrate the social history of poor residential neighborhoods into Waco's history, by conducting historical and archaeological research on a neighborhood that once existed on the Baylor campus.

Final Crossing: Life, Death and Forensic Science along the U.S./Mexico Border The latest techniques in forensic science are used to both identify the remains of individuals who died while crossing the Mexican border and reunite them with their families of origin in Mexico. DNA analysis is performed and submitted into Mexico's missing person's database, SIRLI.

Finding a Voice: Local Participation as a Critical Ingredient to Sustainable Development Key factors that act to facilitate or constrain local participation in development interventions are identified. Focus on who does not "come to the table" in the community development process and the various elements in their lives that contribute to their inability to be at the table.

From Vulnerability to Resilience: Helping People and Communities Cope with Climate-related Crises An historical, progressive approach to determine the dynamic and spatial patterns of vulnerability associated with coping strategies of households and communities to climate-related events such as chronic droughts or natural disasters. Examines adaptations of communities located within the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System.

Pastoralism and Politics in the Ancient Near East A study of the origins of animal domestication and its role in the development of early states and empires in the ancient Near East, particularly Turkey.

Reconciling Conservation and Habitation in Appalachia A longitudinal study of issues surrounding wilderness management in rural communities in the United States. The research examines how the conservation, habitation and development modes of existence have played out over the last twenty-five years in the eastern Kentucky region.

The Impacts of Ecotourism on Livelihood Security and Vulnerability in Costa Rica and Belize Examines whether the presence of ecotourism-based economies improves livelihood security while reducing vulnerability. Local communities are viewed in historical context using a culturally sensitive framework that uniquely compares synchronic and longitudinal data gathered at the household level.

The Maya Expressive Culture Documentation Project This project is recording the imagery of festival dances performed by Highland Maya dance troupes, visits to shrines, religious processions and vigils and ceremonies in the religious brotherhoods. The goals are to record Maya traditions and religious lore and to understand the strategies employed to maintain and reproduce the traditions within cultures that are changing rapidly.