Brent Metz
- Affiliate Faculty, Indigenous Studies
- Director of the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Contact Info
Lawrence
1415 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Education —
magna cum laude
Specialization
- Latin America
- Central America
- Mexico
- Indigenous development
- Teaching of anthropology
- Masculinity
- Applied field schools
- Service learning
- Ethnography
- Migration
- Climate change
Research —
My primary research focus since 1990 has been the changing quality of life and the politics of identity among impoverished Ch'orti'-Maya subsistence farmers in eastern Guatemala and western Honduras and mestizos in the former Ch'orti'-speaking area of northwestern El Salvador. My most recent book, Where Have the Eastern Mayas Gone? The Labyrinth of Ch’orti’ Indigeneity and Mestizaje in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador (2022), explore competing approaches to Indigenous recognition by way of the long history of Ch’orti’ cultural, identity, and territorial changes. The digital version of the book includes hyperlinks to 79 video clips of interviews and events, 30 color maps, and dozens of color photos. Currently, I am constructing an interactive website to deliver the key findings of Ch’orti’ history, territory, and cultural remnants to the Ch’orti’s, who are not in the habit of reading academic works or books whatsoever. The idea is that they access the information on their smartphones, as very few have computers. I am interested in development in the broadest sense in terms of quality of life, including identity, consciousness raising, technology, health and political participation.
Teaching —
Since earning my PhD in 1995, I have designed and taught 27 different courses at 5 institutions. These include Indigenous Traditions of Latin America, Indigenous Development in Latin America, Global Indigenous Movements, Multidisciplinary Service-Learning Field School in Collaboration with the Ch'orti' Maya, the study abroad course Intercultural Perspectives: The Huasteca Potosina, Mexico, and Doing Ethnography.
A principal tenet of my teaching philosophy is that students should learn how to connect the dots between a course's subject matter and their everyday decisions; otherwise, they will not only forget the material as soon as they walk out the door. Moreover, for me a college education is not only about economics, i.e., getting a job, but training informed citizens. Because the U.S. is a global power, we have a responsibility to be informed about societies and cultures other than our own. I regularly challenge students to interpret current events and identify erroneous media representations. Service learning is key to engaging students, integrating teaching with research and service, and giving students’ invaluable experiences in the job market and society in general.
Selected Publications —
Books
2022 Where did the Eastern Mayas Go? The Historical, Relational, and Contingent Interplay of Ch’orti’ Indigeneity. University Press of Colorado.
2006 Ch'orti'-Maya Survival in Eastern Guatemala: Indigeneity in Transition. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. (346pp.)
2002 with Julián López, Primero Dios: Etnografía y cambio social entre los mayas ch’orti’s del oriente de Guatemala [God Willing: Ethnography and Social Change among the Ch’orti’ Maya of Eastern Guatemala]. Guatemala: FLACSO, Plumsock, Oxfam, COMACH & Horizont 3000. (279 pp.)
Edited Volume
2009 1st editor, Cameron L. McNeil and Kerry M. Hull co-editors. The Ch’orti’ Maya Area, Past and Present. University Press of Florida. (25 contributors from 6 disciplines, 20 chapters).
Peer Reviewed Articles
2017 with Jodi Gentry, “Adapting Photovoice to the Marginal Indigenous Ch’orti’ Maya.” Human Organization 76(3):251-63.
2016 “The Challenge of Framing Migration for the Public.” Practicing Anthropology 38(1):48-50.
2012 “El laberinto de la indigenidad: Cómo se determina quién es indígena maya ch’orti’ en Guatemala, Honduras y El Salvador.”Reflexiones 91(1): 221-234.
Brent E. Metz. 2010. “Questions of Indigeneity and the (Re)-Emergent Ch’orti’ Maya of Honduras.”Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 15(2):289-316.
2010 co-authored with Lorenzo Mariano and Julián López García. “The Violence after La Violencia in the Ch’orti’ Region of Eastern Guatemala.”Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 15(1):16-41.
2001 "Politics, Population, and Family Planning in Guatemala: Ch’orti’ Maya Experiences." Human Organization 60(3):259-274.
1998 “Without Nation, Without Community: The Growth of Maya Nationalism among Ch’orti’s of Eastern Guatemala.” Journal of Anthropological Research 54(3):325-349.
1991 with Liliana Goldin. “An Expression of Cultural Change: Invisible Converts to Protestantism among the Highland Guatemalan Mayas.”Ethnology 30(4):325-338.
1990 “The Dynamics of Culture and Law: Anglo Domination of Mexican Migrants in Michigan.” Michigan Sociological Review 4:33-45.
Book Chapters
In Press “Ch’orti’ Maya Subsistence Farmers’ Disenchantment under Climate Change.” In: What Does Climate Change Feel Like?, edited by Paula Saravia & Jennifer Liu. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
2025 “What Participation Means in a Divided Indigenous Community: The Case of an Engineers Without Borders Water Project among the Ch'orti' Maya of Eastern Guatemala.” Pp.189-204 in: Community-Led Development in Practice: We Power Our Own Change, edited by Elene Cloete and Gunjan Veda. London: Routledge.
2021 “Causes of Migration to and from the Ch’orti’ Maya Area of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.” Pp.197-211 in: Human Migration: Biocultural Perspectives, edited by Dr. Maria de Lourdes Muñoz Moreno and Michael C. Crawford. University of Oxford Press, USA.
2016 “An Ambivalent Nation: Chortís in Eastern Guatemala and Western Honduras.” Pp.193-207 in Modern Wilderness: Mobility, Friction, and Frontiers in Asia and the Americas from 1800, edited by Jaime Moreno Tejada and Bradley Tatar. New York: Routledge.
2015 1st author with Alfredo Francesch. “Llamas de inseguridad en el oriente de Guatemala: Megaproyectos y la quema de la municipalidad de Jocotán” [The Flames of Insecurity in Eastern Guatemala: Megaprojects and the Burning of Jocotán’s City Hall.] Pp.247-69 in Dinosaurio reloaded: Violencias actuales en Guatemala [Dinosaur Reloaded: Contemporary Violence in Guatemala], Manuela Camus, SantiagoBastos, & Julián López, eds. FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencas Sociales) & Universidad de Córdoba.
2014 with Meghan Webb, “Historical Sediments of Competing Gender Models in Indigenous Guatemala.” Pp.193-211 in Masculinities in a Global Era, Joseph Gelfer, ed. Springer Press.
2009 “Las ‘ruinas’ olvidadas en el área ch’orti’: Apuntes para una historia de la violencia en el oriente de Guatemala.” Pp.65-92 in Guatemala: Violencias Desbordadas, Julián López García, Santiago Bastos, & Manuela Camus, eds. Córdoba, Spain: FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencas Sociales) and Universidad de Córdoba.
2007 “De la cosmovision a la herencia: La mayanizacion y los bases cambiantes de la etnia en el area ch’orti’” [From Cosmovisión to Ancestry: Mayanization and the Changing Bases of Ethnicity in the Ch’orti’ Area]. Pp.445-467 del in Mayanización y vida cotidiana: La ideología y el discurso cultural en la sociedad guatemalteca. Volumen 2: Estudios de caso. [Mayanization and Daily Life: Ideology and Cultural Discourse in Guatemalan Society]. Santiago Bastos and Aura Cumes, eds. Guatemala: FLACSO.
2001 “Investigación y colaboración en el movimiento maya-ch'orti'.” [Investigation and Collaboration in Ch’orti’-Maya Movement]. Pp. 311-340 in Los derechos humanos en tierras mayas: Politica, representaciones y moralidad [Human Rights in the Maya Lands: Politics, Representation, and Morality]. Pedro Pitarch and Julián López, eds. Madrid: Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas.
Selected Presentations —
Selected Professional Conferences – Organizer, Chair, Discussant
“Reflexiones sobre cinco siglos de colonialismo en Centroamérica (Reflections on Five Centuries of Colonialism in Central America).” KU CLACS in coordination with the U. of Arizona Center for Latin American Studies, the U. of Albany’s Department of African, Latin American, Caribbean, & Latinx Studies, and the U. de Costa Rica’s Centro de Investigación en Identidad y Cultura Latinoamericanas (CIICLA). June 26-27, 2025, Universidad de Costa Rica. 14 Indigenous and Black Central American leaders from 7 countries. Co-organizer and co-chair.
“Indigeneities: Land, Labor, Desire”, Tepoztlán Institute for the Transnational History of the Americas annual symposium. July 24-31, 2024, Tepotzlán, Mexico. 68 presenters. Week-long discussant.
“Promises and Challenges of International Development in the Digital Age.” 86 participants & attendees, 9 international organizations (Outreach International, Unbound International, Fundación Paraguaya, Heifer International, Water.org, Heart to Heart International, Children International, Clinic in a Can, and EOS International). KU Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Berenson Petroleum Center, 4/15/24. Co-organizer & co-chair.
“Indigenous Responses to Climate Change in the Americas.” University of Kansas Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Sept 28-30, 2023. 29 presenters from 8 countries.Organizer & Chair
“Resource Extraction and Economic Recovery: Structures and Methods.” Society for Applied Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada. Saturday April 2, 2016. Chair.
“The Ch’orti’ Maya Area of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador? Contemporary Perspectives.” American Anthropological Assn. (AAA), Denver, Nov. 19, 2015. Organizer & Chair.
“Ethnic Groups in Central America.” Latin American Studies Association, 2nd Conference on Race, Ethnicity and Indigenous Peoples, University of California, San Diego, November 3, 2011. Chair.
“Mesoamerican Relationships with Nature” (12 participants), American Anthropological Assn. (AAA), Washington, D.C., Nov. 28, 2007. Organizer & Chair.
“Borderline Indigeneities” (4 participants, 2 disciplines), Latin American Studies Assn (LASA), San Juan, Puerto Rico, 3/15/2006. Organizer & Chair.
“The Ch’orti’ Maya Area, Past and Present” (14 participants, 4 disciplines), AAA, Washington D.C., 12/1/2005. Organizer & Chair.
“Out of the Shadows: Recent Research in the Guatemalan Oriente” (7 participants, 3 nations), LASA, Dallas, 3/28/2003. Organizer & Chair.
“Roundtable: The Problem of Indigenous Authenticity in the Maya Region” (11 participants, 5 nations), AAA, New Orleans, 11/24/2002. Organizer & Chair.
“Who, How, and Where Are Guatemalans? Current Issues in Guatemalan Demography” (10 presenters, 4 disciplines, 4 nations) AAA, Philadelphia, 12/4/1998. Organizer & Chair.
Selected Presentations
“The Collaborative Ethnographic Survey: Perpetual Negotiation with the Ch’orti’ Maya Ethnic Revitalization Movement.” Society for Applied Anthropology annual meeting, Santa Fe, NM. 3/27/24.
Poster: “Long History of Ch'orti' Responses to Rainfall Scarcity.” Indigenous Responses to Climate Change in the Americas. Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Kansas, Sept 28-30, 2023.
Roundtable participant for “How Does Climate Change Feel? (Re)Thinking Cultural Embodied Responses to Environmental Precarity.” Organized and chaired by Paula Saravia. American Anthropological Association (AAA), Seattle, WA. 11/9/22.
University of Kansas Area Studies K-12 Teacher Training Workshop, “Why Is It So Difficult to Know Who’s Indigenous in Latin America?”. 7/22/22.
“Four Approaches to Indigeneity in the Americas and Their Implications.” KU Hall Center for the Humanities Colonialism Seminar. 2/26/21.
“Historical Factors Behind Guatemalan, Honduran, and Salvadoran Migration to the U.S.” Johnson County Community College "Great Decisions in Foreign Policy" lecture series, Foreign Policy Association. 5/14/20
With Daniel Baheri Sarvestani “Indigenous Re-Assertion as Social Therapy: The Ch’orti’ Maya Movement, Empowerment, and Motivation.” Fifth Latin American Regional Conference of the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology. San José, Costa Rica. 7/19/19
With Daniel Bagheri Sarvestani “Taking Stock of Indigenous Rights Progress among Chortís of Copán and Ocotepeque.” Invited panel “Changes, Continuities, and Engaged Anthropology in Contemporary Honduras.” Society for Applied Anthropology meetings, Portland, OR. 3/20/19
“Insider/outsider Indigenous Studies in Anthropology Roundtable: Where Critical Reflections Matter.” Roundtable Discussion for the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C. 11/30/17
“The Ch’orti’ Maya Diaspora.” Second International Human Migration Conference, CINVESTAV University, Mexico City. 10/18/17
“How We Think and Write about Migration.” Special invited panel for the Society for Applied Anthropology, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 3/31/17.
“Ch’orti’ Maya Perceptions of Environmental Change: The Erosion of a Worldview.” Invited Marxico Visiting Scholar Presentation. Boettcher Auditorium, Department of Geography & Environment, University of Denver. 10/27/16.
“Intersecting with Engineers Without Borders in a Latin American Indigenous Water Project.” Society for Applied Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada. 4/2/16.
“Situational Identity, Opportunism, and Self-Defense in Eastern Guatemala and Western Honduras.” American Anthropological Assn. (AAA), Denver, 11/19/2015.
“An Ambivalent Nation: Chortís in Eastern Guatemala and Western Honduras.” Latin American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico. In Panel “Identificación Colectiva de Naciones Indígenas Transfronterizas.” 5/28/15.
“An Ethnographic Approach to Exploring Indigenous Heritage and Identity in the Former Ch’orti’-Speaking Area.” Society for American Archeology, Austin, TX. In Symposium “New Definitions of Southeastern Mesoamerica: Indigenous Interaction, Resilience and Change.” 4/25/14.
“Megaprojects Vs. Subsistence Agriculture in Ch’orti’ Maya Area of Guatemala.” Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, Annual Meetings, Mérida, Mexico, 3/21/13.
“Combining Engineering and Anthropology in Development: Engineers Without Borders among the Ch'orti' Maya of Guatemala.” With Jodi Gentry. KU Hall Center for the Humanities, Latin American Studies Seminar. 1/25/13.
“Development Challenges among the Ch’orti’ Maya.” Engineers Without Borders – Kansas City Professional Chapter. Black & Veatch Corporation. 8/20/12.
“Ch'orti' Mayas in Northwestern El Salvador? Misadventures and Revelations in Surveying Indigeneity and Mestizaje.” Latin American Studies Association, 2nd Conference on Race, Ethnicity and Indigenous Peoples, University of California, San Diego. 11/3/11.
“Reverse Oz-mosis: From Ch’orti’ Homesteads to the Kansas Netherworld.” LASA, Rio de Janeiro, 6/12/09.
“Violence after ‘the Violence’ in the Ch’orti’ Region of Eastern Guatemala.” AAA, San Francisco, 11/22/2008.
“Las ‘ruinas’ olvidadas en el área ch’orti’: Apuntes para una historia de la violencia en el oriente de Guatemala.” Seminario Internacional: Expresiones y representaciones de la violencia en Guatemala FLACSO / Universidad de Córdoba / Cooperación Española de Desarrollo.Antigua Guatemala, 10/2-3/2008.
"Racial Ideologies in the Ch'orti' Maya Movements of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.” Latin American Studies Association, First Conference on Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples, University of California, San Diego. 5/22-23/2008.
“Changing Ch’orti’ Perceptions of the Natural World.” AAA, Washington, D.C., 11/29/2007.
“Ambiguous Indigeneities in the Ch'orti' Area of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.” LASA, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 3/15/2006.
“Searching for Ch’orti’ Indigeneity in Contemporary Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.” AAA, Washington, D.C., 12/1/2005.
“Los ch’orti’s de Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras”. Coordinación Maya Ch’orti’, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Jocotán, Guatemala, 8/9/2004.
“¿Quiénes son los ch'orti's? Una exploración de los márgenes de la indigeneidad maya.” III Congreso Internacional sobre el Pop Wuj Libro Sagrado Maya de Guatemala. Quezaltenango, Guatemala, 8/6/2003.
“Machete Penises and Devouring Vaginas: The Ethnographer and Ch'orti' Sexuality.” KU Hall Center for the Humanities Gender Seminar, 12/19/2001.
“Derechos, deseos y demandas de campesinos y líderes mayas en Guatemala y Honduras.” Cultura y Derechos Indígenas en Iberoamérica (Indigenous Culture and Rights in Ibero-America), Universidad de Extremadura, Spain, 7/4/2001.
“Local Level Collaborative Observation in the Maya Movement”, LASA, Miami, 3/16/2000.
“The Causes, Consequences and Politics of Ch'orti' ‘Overpopulation’”, AAA, Philadelphia, 12/4/1998.
“Ladino vs. Maya Nationalism among Ch’orti’s of Eastern Guatemala,” AAA, Washington, 11/19/1997.
“Complementing Detached with Participatory Empiricism of the Ch’orti’,” AAA, San Francisco, 12/22/1996.
“The Meaning of Poverty to the Maya-Ch’orti’,” AAA, Washington, 11/19/1995.
“Maya-Ch’orti’ Masculinity as Projected and Imagined,” AAA, Atlanta, 12/1/1994.
Awards & Honors —
KU Center for Service Learning “Faculty of the Year Award”, 2023.
KU International Studies George Woodyard International Educator Award, 2017.
KU Department of Anthropology “Unbridled Award” for outstanding contribution to undergraduate teaching and advising.
KU Hall Center for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship, for writing a book on Ch’orti’ Maya indigeneity in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. January – May, 2011.
Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars “Outstanding Faculty Award.” April 17, 2011.
KU Center for Teaching Excellence. Outstanding Educator Award. May 6, 2009
Service —
Department
2017-present Member, Undergraduate Advisory Committee, Center for Global & International Studies
2016-present Associate Chair, Anthropology
2016-18 Coordinator of Curriculum Committee, Anthopology
2009-14 Coordinator of Undergraduate Committee, Anthropology
2014-15 Undergraduate Committee, Anthropology
2005-09 Undergraduate Committee
2014 Pre-tenure Review Committee for Dr. Carlos Nash
2014-15 Tenure Committee for Kathryn Rhine
2013-14 Annual Faculty Evaluation Committee
2013-14 Undergraduate Club (UAA) Mentor
2008-09 Undergraduate Club (AAU) Mentor
2007-09 Sociocultural/Linguistic Anthropology ‘Long-term Vision’ Committee Chair
University
2018-present Advisory Board, Global Awareness Program
2018-present Executive Committee, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies
2018-19 Search Committee for Indigenous languages expert for the KU Department of Spanish & Portuguese
2017-present Selection Committee, Woodyard International Educator Award
2014-present Faculty Ambassador, Center for Civic & Social Responsibility
2012-18 Undergraduate Committee, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies
2009-present Academic Misconduct Committee
2009-18 Advisory Board, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies
2015 Evaluation committee member, Sharon & Jeffrey Vitter Award for Engaged Scholarship
2014-15 University Sabbatical Leave Committee
2012 NEH Grant Evaluation Committee, Hall Center
2011 Director, Hall Center "Latin American Studies Seminar"
2008-10 Faculty Senator
2010 Travel Grant Evaluation Committee, Hall Center
2002-10 Grant Committee, Center of Latin American Studies
2001-05, 07 Graduate Coordinator, Center of Latin American Studies
1997-98 Grinnell College Minority Student Mentor
Community
2002-present Responses to requests for expert testimonies on asylum and other immigration cases (39 in 2018, including writing 2 legal briefs)
2012-present Co-founder & Cultural Liaison, Engineers Without Borders - Sunflower State Professionals
2010-present Wuqu Kawoq Maya Health Alliance Board Member
2006-12 Board Member, Lawrence Centro Hispano
2006 Chair, Organizer and Presenter for KU Center of Latin American Studies' "Guatemala Workshop for Teachers”
Profession
1998-present External reviewer for American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Cengage Learning Press, Current Anthropology, Edwin Mellon Press, Ethnicity & Health, Harwood Academic Publishers, Health Education Journal, Human Organization, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, Journal of Genocide Research, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Ethnic Studies, Routledge and University of New Mexico Press.
2018 External Evaluator for Tenure, Dr. Bradley Tatar, Ulsan Institute of Science & Technology (Korea)
2016 External Evaluator for Tenure, Dr. Cameron McNeil, CUNY Graduate School
Memberships —
American Anthropological Association
Guatemalan Scholars Network
Latin American Studies Association
Academia de Lenguas Mayas, honorary member
Society for Latin American Anthropology
Society for Applied Anthropology
Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars
Engineers Without Borders