BIOGRAPHY:
Sami Savateri is a student in the Integrated Anthropological Sciences PhD program at the University of Central Florida and currently serving as Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Archaeology Laboratory under Dr. Sarah Barber. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of South Carolina – Beaufort, a Master of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Central Florida, and a Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems, also from the University of Central Florida. With expertise in Geographic Information Systems, Sami specializes in landscape archaeology on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. For the past five years, Sami has also contributed to the Cape Canaveral Archaeological Mitigation Project, a partnership between the University of Central Florida and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to research archaeological sites at risk of destruction due to sea level rise.
RESEARCH:
Sami’s research focuses on the political, ritual, and natural landscape around the Manialtepec Lagoon in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. Her Master’s thesis involved a predictive model of ritual circuit pathways around the Lagoon using terrain and natural resources as variables, and her PhD research will focus on the development of a small-scale polity from a coastal landscape that incorporated views of and natural resources from the Pacific Ocean, Manialtepec Lagoon, and Manialtepec River.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Email: sami.savateri@ucf.edu