Contributors

Authors

SERGIO BOTTA is Associate Professor at the Department of History, Anthropology, Religions, Arts, and Performing Arts at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He teaches History of Religions and History of the Americas. His research focuses on indigenous religions of the Americas (with a special interest in Mesoamerican cultures), method and theory in the study of religions, and religions and the arts. Doctor Botta is Deputy Editor of the journal Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni.

MARTIN DEVECKA is an assistant professor in the Literature Department of the Humanities Division at the University of California, Santa Cruz, United States. His research interests include the cultural history of Rome and of the ancient world in general, pre-Hispanic and colonial central Mexican history, and the comparative history of premodern ruins. Devecka’s articles have been published in journals such as The Cambridge Classical Journal and The Journal of Roman Studies.

MARÍA CELIA FONTANA CALVO, Doctor of Art History (University of Zaragoza, Spain), is a professor and researcher at the Autonomous University of Morelos, Mexico. She is a member of the National System of Researchers and heads the academic group called Studies of the Image in Art. Her research centers on the iconography of Spanish and colonial Mexican art. She is director of the journal Argensola, published by the Institute of Altoaragonese Studies, Spain.

FRANCISCO MARCO SIMÓN is Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at the Department of Ancient Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Spain, and has published extensively on ancient history and religions. He has been the coordinator of the collective research project Religious Acculturation in the Old World and Colonial America: A Comparative Analysis of the Rhetoric of Alterity and the Construction of the Other, the results of which are presented in the book From Ancient Rome to Colonial Mexico: Religious Globalization in the Context of Empire.

GYÖRGY NÉMETH is chair of the Department of Ancient History, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. He serves as president of the Committee of Ancient History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as well as editor-in-chief and editorial board member of the journals Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis, Hungarian Polis Studies, Ókor, and others. He has published over thirty books and one hundred articles in Hungarian, English, German, and French.

GUILHEM OLIVIER is a professor and researcher at the Institute of Historical Research at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He is author of Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, “Lord of the Smoking Mirror” (University Press of Colorado, 2003 and 2008) and Cacería, Sacrificio y Poder en Mesoamérica: Tras las Huellas de Mixcóatl, “Serpiente de Nube” [Hunting, Sacrifice, and Power in Mesoamerica: Following the Trail of Mixcoatl, “Could Serpent”] (2015).

LORENZO PÉREZ YARZA is a postdoc researcher at the University Carlos III, Madrid. His main line of research is the solar cult within the Roman Empire, focusing on the cultural and religious evolution of this manifestation of ancient religion. He has collaborated on the research project Religious Acculturation in the Old World and Colonial America. In 2021 his book El culto de Sol en el occidente romano was published by the Editorial Universidad de Sevilla.

PAOLO TAVIANI is Associate Professor of History of Religions at the Department of Human Studies, University of L’Aquila. His major areas of interest are ancient Greece and Ireland. In 2012, he published the book Furor bellicus: La figura del guerriero arcaico nella Grecia antica [Furor Bellicus: The Figure of the Archaic Warrior in Ancient Greece].

GREG WOOLF is Ronald J. Mellor Distinguished Professor of Ancient History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is principal investigator of The Sanctuaries Project, funded through an Anneliese Maier Research Prize awarded by the Humboldt Foundation. He has published widely on Roman imperialism and religion. His book The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History was published by Oxford University Press in 2020.

DAVID CHARLES WRIGHT-CARR is a professor at the Department of Visual Arts, University of Guanajuato, Mexico. He is a corresponding member of the Mexican Academy of History and a member of the National System of Researchers. His books, chapter, and articles—published in Brazil, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Spain, and the United States—center on Otomi ethnohistory, the visual and verbal languages of pre-Hispanic and colonial Mesoamerica, the translation of Nahuatl texts, and embodied aesthetics.

Translators

EMMA CHESTERMAN specializes in translating research about the ancient world and history into her native English, working with Castilian-speaking clients worldwide. She completed her BA and MA in Ancient History at King’s College London, has studied eight languages (including Castilian, Latin, and Ancient Greek), is qualified to teach English, and has worked in Chile and Bolivia. Emma has translated across ancient and modern politics, religion, and Roman and Paleo-European Hispania, and works extensively with the Ancient European Languages And Writings network.

BENJAMIN ADAM JERUE is a lecturer in the Department of Education at the Universidad San Jorge (Zaragoza, Spain). After receiving his PhD in Classical Studies from Yale University (2016), he moved to Spain where he studied education at the University of Zaragoza and has also worked as a translator on numerous projects. He has recently published on Aulus Gelius and the lexeme callidus in the journals Emerita and Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis, respectively.

LAYLA WRIGHT-CONTRERAS is a bicultural interpreter and translator (English-Castilian) specializing in academic, business, and sustainability topics. She translates for the museum and editorial branches of the Quixote Iconographic Museum in Guanajuato, Mexico. She also serves as an intercultural coach for corporate relocation companies in north central Mexico. She has a Masters in Administration from the University of Guanajuato; her undergraduate degrees in Broadcasting and International Studies are from Northern Michigan University, where she graduated summa cum laude.

Illustrators

RODOLFO ÁVILA VILLEGAS studied archaeology at the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) in Mexico City, specializing in archaeological drawing. From 1985 to 2018 he served as graphic artist, digital designer, draftsman, and layout artist for books and the journal Trace at the French Center for Mexican and Central American Studies (CEMCA) in Mexico City. He has participated in archaeological surveys for several CEMCA projects and currently works as a freelancer.

STEPHANIE CONSTANTINO VEGA was born in Yuriria, Guanajuato, Mexico. She was awarded the University Woman’s Prize for Artistic Expression in 2016. Her illustrations have been published in journals and books in Mexico, the United States, and Italy. In 2018 she received her degree in Visual Arts from the University of Guanajuato. She is finishing the Master’s in Arts program at the same institution, where she currently teaches undergraduate courses.

MARÍA GABRIELA GUEVARA SÁNCHEZ is a graduate of the Visual Arts program at the University of Guanajuato. She has collaborated on mural paintings in public buildings in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, and on animation projects with director Ricardo Arnaiz, including La Leyenda de la Nahuala (2007), Nikté (2009), and La Revolución de Juan Escopeta (2011). Her work as a professional illustrator ranges from comic strips to drawings for academic publications.