{"id":6123,"date":"2024-08-01T04:05:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T08:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/profile\/joyce-n-bennett\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T12:13:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:13:44","slug":"joyce-n-bennett","status":"publish","type":"faculty-profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/profile\/joyce-n-bennett\/","title":{"rendered":"Joyce N. Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"

Education:<\/p>\n

B.A. University of Richmond; American Studies, Music Performance<\/p>\n

M.A., Ph.D. Tulane University; Anthropology<\/p>\n

Joyce Bennett is an anthropologist whose research and teaching focus on sociocultural and sociolinguistic issues in Central and North America. She mostly focuses on the Kaqchikel Maya-speaking population of the Western highlands of Guatemala, but she also collaborates with ethnolinguistic groups throughout Guatemala and with Indigenous and other marginalized peoples in North America. She is an advocate of community engaged learning and regularly connects her courses to local communities. Professor Bennett is an avid supporter of multi-method and cross-disciplinary approaches. She firmly believes that learning and scholarship must be connected to the people and places academics study through mutual collaboration and respect.<\/p>\n

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Her current research focuses on Maya women in Guatemala and their attempts to protect their traditional weavings through intellectual property rights. She is the recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Scholars award in 2022-2023 and an Engaged Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, also in 2022-2023, which supports that work. She was the Central American Visiting Scholar at the David D. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University in the 2019-2020 academic year.<\/p>\n

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Professor Bennett publishes at the intersections of language revitalization, feminism, social justice, and political economy. Her articles appear in Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, International Journal of Women\u2019s Studies, Maya America, <\/em>and more. Professor Bennett\u2019s first book, Good Maya Women: <\/em>Migration, Clothing, and Language Revitalization in Highland Guatemala <\/em>(University of Alabama Press, 2022), <\/em>analyzes how indigenous women\u2019s migration contributes to women\u2019s empowerment in their home communities in Guatemala. Analyzing the life histories of migrant women exposes how women\u2019s migration is the result of structural violence and how women subvert that violence, returning home to revitalize their indigenous Kaqchikel language and clothing. As women engage in revitalization work on a daily basis, they seek to earn the title of \u201cgood\u201d women in their home communities. Using affect theory to analyze moments when women earn the title of \u201cgood\u201d women highlights how women\u2019s experiences of their activism gives them strength, even in a context where women\u2019s activism continues to marginalize them in the broader Guatemalan context. Her book offers an analysis of neoliberal economic forces as more complex and perhaps even hopeful than traditional analyses. The ethnography promotes an understanding of Maya women\u2019s lives and work outside of developmentalist, Westernized notions of empowerment and allows for a more nuanced scholarly analysis and representation of Maya women.<\/p>\n

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Courses Taught:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology<\/p>\n

Indigenous Women\u2019s Social Movements in Latin America<\/p>\n

Culture and Interpretation<\/p>\n

Language Death and Revitalization<\/p>\n

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Publications:<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 2027. Kemtzij: Weaving Reciprocal Indigenous Ontologies in Kaqchikel Maya Arts. <\/em>Amherst College Press. Edited with Tiffany D. Creegan-Miller.<\/p>\n

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\u201cArts, Textiles, Identity, Intellectual Property in Central America.\u201d In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Ed. Mark Aldenderfer. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.<\/p>\n

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    \n
  1. \u201cMobile Maya Women and Materiality: Connecting Modern Migration and Material Records. In Moving Maya: Circulation en Espaces Mayas de 250 APR. J-C \u00c0 Nos Jours<\/em>, Juliette Danfakha and Clarissa Cagnato eds. Paris, France: Presses universitaires de Paris Nanterre. 57-76.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Bennett, Joyce and Kimberly Sanchez. \u201cAntiracist Praxis in Community Engagement: A Partnership Rubric.\u201d International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and <\/em>Community Engagement<\/em> 11 (1).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

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      1. Good Maya Women:<\/em> Migration, Clothing, and Language Revitalization in Highland <\/em>Guatemala. <\/em>University of Alabama Press.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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        1. \u201cMothering through Language: Gender, Class, and Education in Language Revitalization among Kaqchikel Maya Women in Guatemala.\u201d Journal of Linguistic Anthropology <\/em>30(2) 196-212. \u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Bennett, Joyce and Ambrocia Cuma. \u201cMaya-americanos en casa: Los efectos de la migraci\u00f3n de Guatemala a los EEUU en la regi\u00f3n Kaqchikel.\u201d Maya America. <\/em>2:1, Article 20.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

             <\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Bennett, Joyce, Mike Doyle, and Margie Giacalone (CC \u201918). \u201cCommunity-Engaged Learning for Immigration Justice: Building Solidarity through Praxis.\u201d Teaching and <\/em>Learning Anthropology Journal <\/em>3 (2) 28-46. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5070\/T33246957<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

               <\/p>\n

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              1. \u201cComadre Work: Grassroots Feminism in a Kaqchikel Maya Town.\u201d Journal of International Women\u2019s Studies, <\/em>20 (6) 60-74.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                 <\/p>\n

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                1. \u201cI became more Maya\u201d: International Kaqchikel Maya migration in Central America. Universitas Psycol\u00f3gica<\/em> 16 (5): 1-13.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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                  1. \u201cXujal runa\u2019\u00f6j: The Cultural and Linguistic Consequences of Kaqchikel Maya migration to the US.\u201dNi sombras ni proscritos: Indigenous Presence in the Latina\/o Community, Label Me Latino.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                     <\/p>\n

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                    1. \u201cTraje\u2019s future: gendered paths in Guatemala.\u201d Native American and Indigenous <\/em>Studies Journal<\/em> 2(1): 67-89.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                       <\/p>\n

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                      1. \u201c\u201cPuro Kaqchikel:\u201d The discourse surrounding language standardization in highland Guatemala.\u201d Fleur de Ling: Tulane University Working Papers. 1: 95-106.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                        \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

                        Recent Presentations:<\/strong><\/p>\n

                        2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Soft bellies: using qualia to understand aging versus ethnic marker change among Kaqchikel Maya women in Guatemala. Association for Anthropology, Gerontology, and the Life Course. UMass Amherst, May 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

                        2025\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Writing in the Shadows of Ghosts: A Case for Changing Tenure and Promotion Standards to Support Writing with and for Anthropological Collaborators. American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, LA. November 17.<\/p>\n

                        2025\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Migraci\u00f3n maya Kaqchikel a Estados Unidos\u2026..y de vuelta: Cuentos de migraci\u00f3n como supervivencia. Ethnicidades mayas multisituadas entre estadounidos y mexico. PUIC-Universidad Aunt\u00f3noma de Mexico. October 9, 2025. M\u00e9xico City, Mexico.<\/p>\n

                        2025\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Feminist Futures in the Maya World. World Anthropology Union; Antigua, Guatemala. November 8, 2025. Chair and Moderator.<\/p>\n

                        2024\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Collaboration through Curriculum: How an Anthropology of Tourism Class is Supporting Grassroots Indigenous Women\u2019s Activism in Guatemala. With Alex Coughlin; Jonathan Dayan; Dennis DeLaney; Kristen Hummer; Hope Johnston; Svet Kasem-Beg; Alexander Kowal; Andrew Kupovich; Julieta Moreira Reyes; Bridget O’Keefe; and Sarah Smith. Northeastern Anthropological Association Meetings; Providence, RI. April 13.<\/p>\n

                        2024\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From Weaving to Wellbeing: Maya Women\u2019s Quest for a Dignified Life. Institute of<\/p>\n

                        Mesoamerican Studies, University of Albany. March 8, 2024.<\/p>\n

                        2024\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Competencia Multicultural en la Investigaci\u00f3n. Te\u00f3ricas de la terapia familiar, Programa Maestr\u00eda en Psicolog\u00eda, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. Guatemala City, Guatemala. January 31, 2024.<\/p>\n

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