Allison Margaret Bigelow

I study the history of science and technology in colonial Latin America, especially vernacular sciences like mining, metallurgy, and agriculture. I use language-centered methods like comparative translation to document the contributions of people whose ideas have been overlooked in the historiography, such as Indigenous, African diasporic, and women practitioners.

 

I also use community-engaged research methods to document the history of language contact, knowledge transfer, and erasure throughout the colonial Americas. I'm currently working on two community-engaged projects: 1) building interactive digital editions of the Maya K'iche' narrative Popol Wuj, led by K'iche', Q'eqchi', Tz'utujil, and Yukatek scholars in Mexico and Guatemala, and non-Mayas in the US, to promote long-term language documentation and revitalization, known as the Multepal Project; 2) a lifecycle of the statue of US revolutionary general George Rogers Clark (1752-1818) at the University of Virginia. The statue sat on UVA's historic campus for 99 years and 9 months, and it was removed from campus through a formal, 4-month process of consultation with representatives from Native Nations whose ancestors were harmed by Clark. I'm co-authoring a book about the history of the statue with 3 consultants from the project: Teresa Pollak (Monacan), Beverly Payne (Occaneechi-Saponi), and Shaleigh Howells (former cultural resources officer of the Pamunkey Nation). In Spring 2026, I'll be at the Smithsonian American Art Museum to work on that project.