Rate My Professor Brent Metz

Metz's research specializes in indigeneity, indigenous reformulation, culture and power, collective memory, ethnographic representation, and masculinity, with a primary focus on the Ch’orti’ Maya of eastern Guatemala, western Honduras, and northwestern El Salvador, as well as broader Mesoamerican and Latin American contexts. His work encompasses applied anthropology, development, quality of life, identity, political participation, health, technology, climate change, water scarcity, migration, service learning, and ethnography. He has authored four books, including Ch'orti'-Maya Survival in Eastern Guatemala: Indigeneity in Transition (2006), Primero Dios: Etnografía y cambio social entre los Mayas Ch'orti's del oriente de Guatemala (2002), and The Ch’orti’ Maya Area: Past and Present (2009, co-edited), along with approximately 20 articles and chapters on indigenous movements, international migration, demography, religious conversion, and migrant farmworkers. Key publications include “Questions of Indigeneity and the (Re)-Emergent Ch'orti' Maya of Honduras” (2010, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology), “The Violence After ‘La Violencia’ in the Ch'orti' Region of Eastern Guatemala” (2010, co-authored), and “Adjusting Photovoice for Marginalized Indigenous Women” (2017, Human Organization). Metz has received the Woodyard International Educator Award in 2017 and the KU Service Learning Award in 2023. He has designed and taught 22 different courses across five institutions, including online courses and study abroad programs to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico, and has mentored 56 PhD committees (seven chaired) and 60 MA committees (22 chaired).