Degrees:
Ph.D., Univ. of California, Berkeley
M.A., Univ. of California, Berkeley
A.B., Harvard Univ.
Amanda J. Guzmán is an anthropological archaeologist with a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She specializes in museum anthropology, focusing on the history of collecting and exhibiting Puerto Rico at the intersection of intercultural representation and national identity formation.
With a record of fellowships from the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of American History, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Guzmán has a demonstrated background in handling and interpreting objects and archival materials across a range of cultural institutions. Guzmán is also the co-director of Trinity's Center for Caribbean Studies, where she established an annual newsletter and a student-researcher team model, which, among other organizational tasks, has expanded the center's website to include a research blog, photo essays, and faculty interviews.
She supports undergraduate anthropological training beyond the classroom through academic-year research assistantships and regular participation in the Summer Research Program and the Public Humanities Collaborative. Previous summer research culminated in a 2024 blog post, co-authored with a team of anthropology majors for the Council for Museum Anthropology titled " Material Storytelling: Student Reflections on Object-Based Research." Future object-based learning opportunities and student research, which range from 3D object modeling with Agisoft Metashape to spatial scanning with Matterport, and augmented reality experiences with Blippar, will be supported by the development of an Anthropology Object Lab, housed within a Material Culture and Museum Studies campus lab space, to be co-directed by Guzmán in collaboration with Professor Martha Risser (Classical Studies). Full Project List of Previous Student-Mentored Summer Projects -Public Humanities Collaborative Projects: 2025 From Archive to Interface: Narrating Hartford Environmental Histories.
2024 Material Histories: Object Digitization and Institutional Storytelling as Practice.
2021 Hashtag Memories: Puerto Rican Community Archiving as Collaborative Place-Making Practice.
Summer Research Program Projects:
2023 Teaching the Caribbean: Digital Scholarship as an Open Educational Resource.
2022 Of/By/For: Anthropological Models of Community Engaged Research.
Guzmán applies her collections experience, as well as her commitment to working with and for multiple publics, to her object-based inquiry teaching practice, which privileges the co-production of knowledge by modeling cultural work. As a former community learning faculty fellow and advisory board member, she actively collaborates with the Center for Hartford Engagement and Research through community learning courses. Guzmán has hosted a class speaker series focused on Puerto Rican and museum studies to promote student interactions with scholars and cultural workers. Guzmán currently serves as a board member of the Council for Museum Anthropology (2024-2026) and will transition to the role of Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Stowe Center for Literary Activism in spring 2026, from the Vice Chair position, which she has held since 2023. She is a member of the International Council of Museums.
Select College Press about Curatorial Projects and Teaching:
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