Callie Vandewiele

Callie Vandewiele

PhD Research

Callie Vandewiele's current research focuses on heritage resurgence with Maya groups in Guatemala, and the ways in which individual communities and the Pan Maya movement rebuild, reimagine, and recreate a shared Maya heritage rooted in the ancient Maya past. Working specifically with Q'eqchi' weavers in the Alta Verapaz, Callie examines the intersection between political projects, heritage and the complexities of indigenous objects in museum collections across the United States and Europe.  As Maya groups across Guatemala negotiate their futures within not only Guatemala's political context, but within an increasingly globalized world, the material collections created during and after colonization play an increasingly important role in defining who owns heritage, how it is used and how identities are formed and mobilized.  

Callie Vandewiele comes to the Centre of Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge's Centre for Gender Studies, where she completed her MPhil in 2014.  Her previous research includes the juxtaposition of masculine identities and evangelical megachurches in the United States, immigration, gender and legal structures in the United States 1820-1920 as well as the decolonization of museums as practice. Callie Vandewiele, at Newnham College, is a Gates Cambridge Scholar.

Email:cv298@cam.ac.uk