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History & Antecedents


Dr. Castañeda began taking students to Yucatán during the summers to learn about Maya peoples, culture, history and ethnography in 1994 (see student successes).After three field seasons, 1994-1996, the ethnographic training program was re-structured as the Field School in Experimental Ethnography. This project combined the goals of research and teaching in an innovative program. Students took courses in ethnographic methods and cultural anthropology while learning how to do fieldwork. Student researchers focused their participation in one of three projects:

The Ah Dzib P’izté’ Project in Maya Art and Anthropology
The Chilam Balam Project in Memory and History
SELT — The School of Experimental Language Training

The Field School in Experimental Ethnography completed its research projects in 2000 after three successful field seasons. In three summer seasons of research, the program trained more than 30 undergraduates and five graduate students and worked in three areas of investigation indicated above.

The Field School received major grant support from the Fideicomiso México-USA, a binational funding agency comprising the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mexican Fondo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes, and the Fundación Bancomer. COMEXUS, the Comision México-USA, also provided administrative support. This organization has now been reformulated into the the la Comisión México-Estados Unidos para el Intercambio Educativo y Cultural www.comexus.org.mx


Based on a re-newed collaboration with Dr. Juan Castillo Cocom beginning in 2000, the Field School was transformed into and re-inaugurated as The Open School of Ethnography and Anthropology. In 2003 the Field School in Experimental Ethnography was re-designed and re-inaugurated as OSEA or The Open School of Ethnography and Anthropology under the auspices of the CITE — The Community Institute of Transcultural Exchange.

Dr. Castillo Cocom taught at the Universidad Nacional Pedagógica (2005-2008) and is currently teaching at the Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo (2009-present). Dr. Castillo Cocom continues to collaborate with OSEA on research projects, collaborative teaching and publications. His students the UIMQRoo are often involved in OSEA teaching, research and conference projects.