Brooklyn, NY — Dr. Luz Martin Del Campo, a doctoral lecturer in anthropology at Kingsborough Community College, has been awarded the prestigious David Walker Memorial Fellowship in Early Modern History at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries for the 2024–2025 academic year. She is the first person from the entire City University of New York (CUNY) system to receive this honor.
Each year, the Bodleian Libraries award approximately 25 researchers worldwide with Bodleian Visiting Fellowships to foster research using their archival, manuscript, and printed book collections. Martin Del Campo will spend one month, from October 14 to November 14, 2024, at the Weston Library for Special Collections in England, researching “The Lacandón Rainforest-Indigenous Vernacular Environmental Maps and Tree (Yaxché) Symbolism in Lacanjá Chansayab, Chiapas, México.” She will be able to extend her research time in England to January 1, 2025, thanks to a PSC-CUNY research award.
Martin Del Campo’s plans to investigate how Maya tree symbolism, land use, and landscape beliefs play a significant role in creating Indigenous vernacular environmental maps among the Lacandón Maya in the Lacandón Rainforest in Chiapas, México. Her work will contribute to the study of Indigenous vernacular environmental cartography by mapping and translating landscape signs within the rainforest.
“The Bodleian Special Collections Map Room collaboration is essential in advancing my research project by providing me with the Méxican topographic and, when available, GIS maps, along with the pre- and post-colonial times literature needed to combine my landscape research to further investigate how, where, and why Indigenous vernacular environmental maps were created and used by the Lacandón Maya communities in the Lacandón Rainforest.”
Access to the Codex Mendoza, an Aztec codex created circa 1541 and kept at the Bodleian Libraries since 1659, will be crucial to her research as well. Named for Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy of New Spain, the codex was produced by native scribes and painters under the supervision of Spanish authorities. It is a graphic and literary record of pre-Columbian Aztec history, rulers, conquests, daily life, and the tribute system.
“Having access to the Codex Mendoza could provide a window into whether traditional pictograms from Central México have landscape markers similar to these, and whether these markers can be viewed and interpreted as native vernacular environmental maps,” she enthused.
“We are incredibly proud of Dr. Luz Martin Del Campo for being awarded this prestigious fellowship at the University of Oxford,” noted Dr. Suri Duitch, interim president of Kingsborough Community College. “Her groundbreaking research on Indigenous vernacular environmental maps will undoubtedly make significant contributions to the fields of anthropology, cartography, and environmental sustainability. This recognition is a testament to her dedication and the caliber of scholarship at Kingsborough Community College and the entire CUNY system.”
To learn more about the Bodleian Visiting Fellowships, visit https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowships/bodleian-visiting-fellowships.
About Kingsborough Community College
Founded in 1963, Kingsborough Community College is Brooklyn’s only community college and is part of the City University of New York (CUNY). Located on a 70-acre campus in Manhattan Beach, Kingsborough remains firmly committed to its mission of providing both liberal arts and career education, promoting student learning and development, as well as strengthening and serving its diverse community. Kingsborough provides a high-quality education through associate degree programs that prepare students for transfer to senior colleges or entry into the workforce. Serving approximately 11,000 full- and part-time students annually and an additional 20,000 students in its expanding continuing education program, Kingsborough has earned recognition as a Leader College of Distinction for excellence in student success by Achieving the Dream, and has been identified as a Top Community College in the nation by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program eight consecutive times.
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CONTACT: Cheryl Todmann | cheryl.todmann@kbcc.cuny.edu | C: 646-897-2508 | T: 718-368-6760