Research / Investigación
My research focuses on the history and politics of archaeology in twentieth-century Mexico. I am the author of In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico (University of Nebraska Press, 2025) and co-editor, with Allison Mickel, of Histories of Labor in Archaeology, a 2024 special issue of the Bulletin of the History of Archaeology. My current research project deals with questions of race, labor, and the state in archaeology. The first result of that project, “How the United Fruit Company Racialized Archaeological Labor in Guatemala, 1910–1953,” was recently published in Comparative Studies in Society and History. My published articles and books chapters are available on Humanities Commons.
Mis lineas de investigación enfocan en la historia y política de la arqueología mexicana durante el siglo XX. Soy el autor de In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico (University of Nebraska Press, 2025) y co-editor, con la Dra. Allison Mickel, de Histories of Labor in Archaeology, un dossier del Bulletin of the History of Archaeology. Mi proyecto de investigación actual tiene que ver con el trabajo, la raza y el estado en la arqueología. El primer resultado del dicho proyecto, “How the United Fruit Company Racialized Archaeological Labor in Guatemala, 1910–1953,” recién salió en Comparative Studies in Society and History. Mis trabajos publicados estan disponibles en Humanities Commons.
Public Scholarship / Divulgación
For broader audiences, I have published a short, English-language introduction to El Tajín on the Mainly Museums blog; participated in a New Books Network interview with Rachel Grace Newman about my book, In the Shadow of El Tajín; and did an AMA on r/AskHistorians.
Para divulgar mis trabajos de investigación en la lengua española, participé en entrevistas con Daniel Salinas Córdova de Libreta Negra MX (también disponible como podcast) y el Archivo General del Estado de Veracruz. Mi participación en el conversatorio Constructores de Disciplina (con Haydeé López Hernández y Humberto Medina González) también esta disponible en YouTube. También presenté mi libro, In the Shadow of El Tajín, en El Colegio de México con los comentarios de Sandra Rozental y Miruna Achim en 2026.
About Me
Sam Holley-Kline was most recently an Assistant Clinical Professor in the University Honors program at the University of Maryland, College Park. He studies the politics and history of archaeology in Mexico, with thematic interests in materiality, extractivism, and indigeneity. He is the author of In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico(University of Nebraska Press, 2025) and co-editor (with Allison Mickel) of Histories of Labor in Archaeology, a 2024 special issue of the Bulletin of the History of Archaeology. Holley-Kline’s research has been published in Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of Social Archaeology, Ethnohistory, Complutum, Archaeological Dialogues, and elsewhere. His research has been supported by funding from Fulbright-Hays, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Holley-Kline received his PhD and MA in anthropology from Stanford University, and holds a BA in Spanish and anthropology from DePauw University.
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