Stephanie Wood (RIG Co-Coordinator) has as her focus the gender ideologies of pre-Columbian indigenous societies and how these changed with Spanish colonization. She works with indigenous language documents from New Spain, including pictorial manuscripts, looking for indications about evolving roles and status for women. She is developing collaboration with colleagues at the Francisco de Burgoa library and the Museo de la Ciudad de Oaxaca, exploring the possibility of gaining access to manuscripts for close study and digitizing them for inclusion in the Gender in Early Mesoamerica Database, which will facilitate their collaborative transcription, translation, and analysis in a distance research environment. She and Judith Musick may give presentations to local audiences on the various Mesoamerican projects of the Feminist Humanities and Wired Humanities Projects.

Analisa Taylor (RIG Co-Coordinator) has a focus on ontemporary indigenous art, literature and cultural activism. She is consulting with activists, artists, writers and teachers in Oaxaca City and Juchitán to examine the use of art, literature, music, and performance in grassroots social movements. She is exploring how local opposition to national and transnational development initiatives are generating new types of indigenous and feminist cultural activism that draw from international human rights and counter-globalization strategies as well as from local indigenous forms of cultural production and social organization. This research will allow her to strengthen ties to writers and artists associated with La Casa de la Cultura in Juchitán and the Universidad Nacional del Istmo in nearby Tehuantepec, as well as the Universidad Nacional Autónoma Benito Juárez and CIESAS in Oaxaca City. These institutions have outstanding archival resources relating to indigenous history, art, and cultural identity.

Lynn Stephen (Anthropology) has a focus on indigenous women’s organizing and leadership development in trans-border communities and organizations. Her work centers on strengthening links with several women’s organizations in and around Oaxaca City and in the Juxtlahuaca region of Oaxaca and with local anthropologists in CIESAS working on similar topics. The organizations with which she collaborates include La Nueva Vida cooperative of weavers in Teotitlán del Valle, the Women’s Regional Council of the Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales in Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, and the Casa de la Mujer in Oaxaca City.

Gabriela Martinez (Journalism) has a focus on women’s media work, film-making, and organizing in relation to social justice and public interests topics. She is developing a documentary on the APPO movement's efforts to re-direct the control of media, and women's involvement, in particular. She has also met with several local film-makers and with staff from La Casa de la Mujer where there is a significant support for the production and distribution of video work dealing specifically with topics concerning the well-being of women. La Casa de la Mujer also has a video library of works produced locally that interest Professor Martínez. She is exploring how the Casa de la Mujer and other organizations use local media outlets to disseminate information regarding preventive health issues, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, among other topics relevant to women in society.

Kathryn Lynch (Environmental Studies) is exploring community-based conservation efforts aimed at protecting
sea turtles on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca. One of the world’s main nesting grounds for the olive ridley turtle is found in Oaxaca. Between May and January, approximately 700,000 turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. In addition, two beaches in Oaxaca support nests for the rare leatherback turtle. Although hunting sea turtles was
officially banned in Mexico in 1990, beach communities still harvest turtles for their shells, meat, and eggs. This research will entail looking at the conflicts between conservation and development needs in rural Oaxaca, including a gender analysis of access, control, and use of natural resources. Katie will seek to establish a relationship with El Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga while in Oaxaca City.

Douglas Kennett (Anthropology / Archaeology) is studying the transition to agriculture and gender representations. Doug hopes to collaborate with Nelly Robles of INAH, and make contact with other archaeologists in Oaxaca City and local indigenous communities to explore potential archaeological sites spanning the transition to agriculture (Archaic through Formative Periods; 7000-2500 years ago) for future collaborative excavations. In addition, he will assess the extent and accessibility of existing museum collections of Formative Period figurines to document changes in gender representations during this major economic transformation.

Sarah McClure (Anthropology / Archaeology) is examining gender and pottery production in Oaxaca. Sarah's research focuses on the gendered organization of learning prehistorically and this project will provide a contemporary case study. She will contact female artisans specializing in clay pottery and figurine production, and begin documenting how pottery and figurine production is taught to aspiring craftswomen. This will lay the foundation for a future long-term ethno-archaeological study of female craft specialization in Oaxaca.

Judith Musick (CSWS) will be one of the key bridge-builders with the Burgoa Library, the City Museum, the Garden, and CIESAS (anthropology research center) in terms of working out what we can offer to them in the way of web expertise and also setting up information and resource sharing systems via the web. She will be key in helping us establish long-distance relationships electronically. The web-based projects that she and Stephanie Wood have developed, such as the Gender in Early Mesoamerica Database, the Mapas Project, the Nahuatl Dictionary, and the Virtual Mesoamerican Archive, may also be of interest to these institutions for possible collaboration and expansion.

Hannah Dillon, community affiliate, is an art historian with an interest in the contemporary art of Oaxaca. She participated in the visit to Oaxaca in August 2006 and shot many photos of the street art and graffiti.

Hannah Goldrich, another community affiliate, has been studying folk art in the State of Oaxaca for about a decade. She has an impressive collection of outstanding works as well as photographs of many of the key artists, especially women.

Stan Cook, an environmentalist and retired UO biology professor, is interested in soil erosion in the Mixteca Alta. Professor Cook's father was Sherburne F. Cook, who left him with photographs from his visits to Oaxaca in 1939 and the 1940s. We are digitizing these images for sharing with colleagues in Oaxaca. He is collaborating with Professor Carlos Rincón Mautner as he retraces his father's steps across the Mixteca Alta.