» Program Description » Research » Course Offerings » Staff » Accomodations » Living in Modern Cuba » Program Costs » Application » Links		STAFF Dr. Vernon James Knight, co-investigator and field school director Lic. Marcos E. Rodríguez Matamoros, co-investigator Mr. John W. O'Hear, co-investigator Lic. Lester Puntonet Toledo, museum specialist Dr. John E. Worth, project ethnohistorian Dr. Lee A. Newsom, project archaeobotanist Dr. Kathryn S. Oths, instructor Ms. Angela Lockard Reed, graduate student assistant Ms. Ashley Brooke Persons, graduate student assistant Additional project specialists Collaborators Dr. Vernon James Knight Dr. Vernon James Knight, co-investigator and field school director. Jim Knight is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama. He directs the University of Alabama field school of the Loma del Convento project. For over 30 years, Dr. Knight has researched the social, political, and religious organization of chiefdoms in the Americas. He has supervised field schools since 1975. top Lic. Marcos E. Rodríguez Matamoros Lic. Marcos E. Rodríguez Matamoros, co-investigator. Marcos Rodríguez represents the Provincial Center of Cultural Patrimony-Cienfuegos, the primary Cuban agency responsible for the project. In this capacity he shares overall direction of the project with Jim Knight. Rodríguez has 25 years' experience as an archaeologist in South-Central Cuba, specializing in the late prehistoric and early historic Arawakan horticultural societies of that region. As Adjunct Professor at the University of Cienfuegos, he is also in charge of training the Cuban contingent of students, and is organizer of the regional society of Cuban amateur archaeologists collaborating in the project. top Mr. John W. O'Hear Mr. John W. O'Hear, co-investigator. John O'Hear is Senior Archaeologist with the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Mississippi State University. He is in charge of field operations at the site of Loma del Convento. O'Hear has over 30 years' experience in the excavation and reporting of horticultural village sites and their architecture, in both Old and New World contexts, and has directed field schools since 1977. He was born in Chile and has lived and traveled extensively in Latin America, including visits to Cuba beginning in 1979. top Lic. Lester Puntonet Toledo Lic. Lester Puntonet Toledo, museum specialist. Lester Puntonet represents the Provincial Museum of Cienfuegos, the entity that curates the artifacts and samples from the project excavations. Aside from assisting with the excavations, Puntonet provides guidance to project personnel in matters of artifact classification, laboratory analysis, cataloging, and curation. top Dr. John E. Worth Dr. John E. Worth, project ethnohistorian. John Worth is Director of the Randell Research Center in Pineland, Florida, a unit of the University of Florida. As an ethnohistorian and paleographer, Worth specializes in the documentary record of early Spanish-Native American contact. He is also trained as an archaeologist, specializing in coastal adaptations of chiefdom societies. Dr. Worth will be dividing his time between on-site activities in Cuba and research in the famous Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain. top Dr. Lee A. Newsom Dr. Lee A. Newsom, project archaeobotanist. Lee Newsom, Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University and a MacArthur Fellow, is the foremost expert in the archaeobotany of the Caribbean region. Her research centers on the economic uses of both cultivated and non-cultivated plants in the tropics. Dr. Newsom is in charge of the recovery, processing, and analysis of plant remains at Loma del Convento. top Dr. Kathryn S. Oths Dr. Kathryn S. Oths, instructor. Kathy Oths is a Professor of Anthropology in the Anthropology Department of the University of Alabama. She is a cultural anthropologist who has conducted field research in Peru, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the Southeastern United States. Dr. Oths is in charge of instruction in the Peoples of Latin America course component of the program, which in this case will be focused on the contemporary life in the Caribbean with special emphasis on Cuba. top Ms. Angela Lockard Reed Ms. Angela Lockard Reed, graduate student assistant. Ms. Reed is a graduate student in the Anthropology Department of the University of Pittsburgh. Angela is a veteran of many years of practical work experience in the archaeology of prehistoric complex societies of Latin America and North America, and in the operation of field schools in the tropics. She has taught archaeology at summer programs at Johns Hopkins University and with the Carnegie Science Center's Outreach program. Angela handles aspects of the student instruction in field and laboratory techniques. top Ms. Ashley Brooke Persons Ms. Ashley Brooke Persons, graduate student assistant. Ms. Persons is a first year graduate student in the Anthropology Department of the University of Alabama. Brooke has previously supervised an archaeological field school with the University of Tennessee- Chattanooga. She joins the project with the expectation of broadening her experience with the archaeology of complex societies in Latin America. She is in charge of aspects of field and laboratory instruction. top Additional project specialists Carlos Rafael Borges Sellén (museologist) Museo Municipal de Rodas Lawrence A. Clayton (historian) University of Alabama Esperanza Lantigua Díaz (biologist) Museo Provincial de Cumanayagua Humberto Sosa Pérez (museologist) Museo Provincial de Cumanayagua Collaborators Alberto Arano Ruiz (mapping, photography) Municipio de Cruces Raúl Fernández Garcés (laboratory specialist, environmental studies) CITMA, Cienfuegos Pedro de Pozo Empresa de Flora y Fauna, Cienfuegos Servilio Jesús Quintero Vázquez (amateur archaeologist) Museo Municipal de Cruces
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