I am a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago in the Department of Anthropology. I completed my BA at the University of Cambridge in 2003, specialising in European prehistory and archaeological science. My doctoral research is concerned with the social study of scientific practice: specifically the construction of expert knowledge within field sciences, through and within international collaborations that include archaeologists from North and South America. The ethnographic fieldwork central to this research was conducted between 2008-2011 in Chile, Bolivia, the US and Canada, and centred on “sites” of archaeological practice broadly construed (including classrooms and conference halls).

Doctoral Research

My thesis research focuses on transnational field sciences - specifically, I am working with communities of archaeologists in South America that include both local Aymara communities, and foreign and local academics. I am looking at both practices of knowledge making in the field, and the structure of academic communities within and across national borders. This involves asking questions about: 1) The production of expert knowledge and authority in field sciences; 2) The nature of disciplinary communities, particularly in relation to global trends in university education; and 3) The structure of international collaborations between academics from North and South America.

My approach is interdisciplinary, bringing into dialogue fields such as postcolonial and feminist science studies, anthropology of professionalism/expertise, politics of memory, anthropology of higher education, archaeological theory/material culture studies, theories of labour, and more traditional anthropological concerns with indigenous knowledge.

The fieldwork for this project has included four months in Bolivia in 2008, looking at North American-Bolivian excavations; 14 months in Chile between 2009-10 working within the Chilean archaeological community and looking at both excavations and universities (funded by a Wenner Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant); and three months working with North American archaeologists and archaeology students in universities in Canada and the US during 2011 (funded by a NSF Dissertation Grant).

Papers and Presentations

Projects

I am involved in various projects not directly related to my main research.

Museums

From 2003-5 I was involved in the Science outreach program MSCOPE. Organised by the University of Chicago, Scitech and Museum of Science and Industry, teaches graduate students how to present science in science museums. Students are trained in and participate in the presentation of scientific knowledge to a broad public. As an intern on this project I was involved with creating museum exhibits and demos from the earliest 'ideas' stage, through evaluations, prototyping, audience reactions, and building, with a team of graduate students from both the social and physical sciences.

The experience in the MSCOPE program has been critical in shaping my approach to archaeological museums. My MA dissertation, "Creating The Inca: Contextualising the construction of archaeological objects and narratives in museums", compares and critiques the presentation of archaeological narratives in seven museums, using the Inca as a point of shared reference. The museums studied are: The Peabody at Yale, The Museo de América in Madrid, The Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú in Lima, and in Cusco The Museo de Arte Precolombian, The Museo Inca, the Museo del Sitio del Qoricancha and the Museo Histórico Regional.

Death and Archaeological Bodies

Research originally undertaken for my undergrad dissertation focused on the conceptualization of archaeological human remains by practizing archaeologists. Additional interviews with Chilean and US archaeologists are on-going. This research was published in an article in Ethnos, above, in 2010.

Pop-culture Representations of the Past

I am interested in representations of the past, and particularly of archaeology, outside the adacemy. In this vein, I presented a paper at TAG NY in 2008 on time-travel and archaeology in Choose Your Own Adventure children's books.

Excavations

This is a list of non-commercial excavations I have been involved with. I also worked in the commercial sector between 1998-2003, with the Cambridge Archaeology Unit (as a field excavator and a finds assistant), with Cambridge County Council Archaeology Unit and with the Heritage Network (both as a field excavator).

Contact and CV

Email me at: maryleighton at uchicago dot edu.

Postal address via: The Dept of Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 US

CV

Archaeologists

Chicago committee - Shannon Dawdy, Maria Cecila Lozada, and Joe Masco. Cambridge advisors - Catherine Hills, Marie-Louise Stig Sorenson, John Robb.

Friends and Family

My brother, Dan Leighton, is (among many other things) a wonderful musician and has his own ceilidh band that is available for weddings, may balls, and any other excuses for a party. My brother Tom Leighton is a professional photographer, and his website is here. My father Mark Leighton is (again, among many other things!) a painter. This website has a very small selection of his work. My sister-in-law Mim Bower is an Archaeogeneticist at the University of Cambridge. Chicago friends with websites: Panos Oikonomou, Brenda Lopez.

Conferences and Professional Organisations

TAG, SAA, EAA, AAA, a useful site listing various archaeology societies.