Allen Christenson

Dr. Allen J. Christenson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature at Brigham Young University. His MA and PhD degrees are in Precolumbian Art History and Literature from the University of Texas, Austin. His research focuses on the art, literature and ceremonial practices of the highland Maya of Guatemala. He has worked in the highland Maya region of Guatemala as a linguist, ethnographer, and art historian since 1976. His publications include Art and Society in a Highland Maya Community (an analysis of the ritual life of the Tz’utujil-Maya of Santiago), and a two volume critical edition of the Popol Vuh that includes a both literal and grammatic English translations of the text along with transcriptions in the original colonial as well as modern Maya orthographies. He recently published, in cooperation with the Newberry Library, a CD-Rom that includes high resolution scans of the Popol Vuh manuscript, a searchable database of the text that includes the Maya text as well as English and Spanish translations, a complete audio reading of the text by K’iche’-Maya speakers, hundreds of photographs, maps, and extensive notes.