People

Research Overview

A circuitous path from music and theater through filmmaking via video art eventually landed Dr. Radlo-Dzur in the academic field of art history. Those somewhat unusual early experiences taught her valuable lessons about communicating ideas in interesting and engaging ways. Each provided distinct methods for conducting research and working collaboratively. As an art historian, her work centers the peoples and cultures native to the American continent– past, present, and future. Her primary focus is Mesoamerica, specifically Nahuatl-speaking communities of central Mexico in the postclassic and early colonial periods (that’s about 1350s to 1650s CE, including but not limited to the Aztecs). Inherently interdisciplinary, she writes at the intersection of archaeology, gender, religion, and linguistic disciplines with an ethno-historical approach to Indigenous epistemologies.

Dr. Radlo-Dzur is currently revising her first book project entitled Mixtitlan Ayauhtitlan (in the Clouds, in the Mist): The Invisible in Early Modern Nahua Art, on the graphic depiction of invisible concepts – from the sensorium to the divine – in postclassic and early colonial Nahua artistic traditions of central Mexico. A second book project, also in development, explores the fluid roles of diplomats, huaqueros, museum staff, and art dealers in the history of collecting Precolumbian objects centered on a case study elaborately carved metates (grinding stones) of Gran Nicoya on the Pacific coast of Central America.

Dr. Radlo-Dzur contributes to a variety of projects supporting language revitalization and archival accessibility for Native communities. As the descendant of immigrants to the American continent (predominantly arriving from Poland in the 1880s and 1940s), she considers it an ethical necessity to work alongside and in support of Native people on projects initiated, approved, directed, and guided by Native leaders and scholars. Ultimately, her academic practice is grounded in service to the agency and autonomy of Indigenous communities in recognition of the fact that so many privileges she enjoys as an American citizen come at enormous cost to the First Peoples of this land.

Research Interests

• Native American and Indigenous studies
• Mesoamerican art and cultural studies
• Museum studies and critique
• Latin American histories and historiography Indigenous epistemes and ways of knowing The sensorium and phenomenology
• Indigenous epistemes and ways of knowing
• The sensorium and phenomenology
• The sensorium and phenomenology
• Histories and materialities of the book, printing, writing, and mark-making
• Early Modern circulation of art and ideas
• Invention of race, colonialisms, nationalisms
• Gender, sexuality and the social construction of identities
• Storytelling, performance, and ethnohistory
• Fakes, forgeries, the antiquities market, and tourism
• Photography, moving image art, and Indigenous Futurisms
• Translation, multilingual communication, and the digital humanities
• Indigenous languages and their revitalization