About the Chair

The Kislak Chair supports in-depth research projects in the disciplines of archaeology, history, cartography, epigraphy, linguistics, ethno-history, ethnography, bibliography, and sociology, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary projects that combine disciplines in novel and productive ways. With a focus on the Western Hemisphere, the Chair may consider regions from the Arctic to Patagonia, including the Caribbean; from the eras before the arrival of Europeans to about 1825; and regarding themes as diverse as the histories of indigenous peoples, colonial and post-colonial movements, the geopolitics of empire, including among others those of France, England, Spain, and Portugal, new routes of trade and modes of commerce, and issues relating to environmental history and exposure to novel flora and fauna.

By encouraging broad interdisciplinary enquiry, the Kislak Chair helps to nourish a broad conversation ranging from the technical aspects of archeological discovery to issues of interest in the current cultural conversation. The annually appointed chair also helps to convene scholars, invited by the chair for seminars, consultations, and ongoing study of the artifacts in the Kislak Collection.

Current Chair

John F. Schwaller

John F. Schwaller has been appointed as the Jay I. Kislak Chair for the Study of the History and Cultures of the Early Americas. Schwaller is Professor Emeritus of History at the University at Albany (SUNY) and Research Associate at the University of Kansas. He is known for his work on the secular clergy in early colonial Mexico, Nahuatl language manuscripts, a history of the Catholic Church in Latin America, and studies on Mexica (Aztec) religion, the Cortés expedition, and the Stations of the Cross. For many years he served as an academic administrator at various universities, including Florida Atlantic University (as Associate Dean), the University of Montana, (as Associate Provost and Associate Vice President) the University of Minnesota – Morris (as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean), and the State University of New York at Potsdam (as President). He is also the former Director of the Academy of American Franciscan History, Latin American Editor of Ethnohistory and is Associate Editor of the journal The Americas. He is the Executive Director of the Association of Nahuatl Scholars, organizing its Annual Conference. Schwaller is the author or editor of fourteen books, and of nearly one hundred articles and encyclopedia entries.

At the Kluge Center, he will be researching and writing a book about Don Luis de Velasco, the Younger (1538-1617) who was a colonial viceroy in Peru, as well as on a natural history of Nahua maize deities.

View past chairs