Professor of Art History Linda K. Williams Awarded Three-year NEH Grant to Study Maya Christian Murals in Yucatan

Linda K. Williams, professor of art history at University of Puget Sound, has been awarded a major collaborative research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in support of a research project titled “Maya Christian Murals of Yucatán: Indigenous Catholicism in Early Modern New Spain.” This collaborative grant will allow Williams and co-principal investigator (PI) Amara Solari, associate professor of art history at Penn State University, to document and pursue multidisciplinary research questions that focus on the 23 remaining religious murals painted by Maya artists in Christian churches and monasteries on the Yucatan Peninsula between 1550 and 1750.

The multiyear project will result in a comprehensive book, forthcoming from University of Texas Press, as well as an interactive website, created in conjunction with Yale University’s Center for the Material and Visual Cultures of Religion (MAVCOR), which will allow access to images of the murals within their physical context and results of the scholars’ research.