Mesolore
"Hauntingly beautiful."
— William H. Beezley
"There has been to date nothing quite like this introduction to the primary documents..."
— Rex Koontz
"...the editors are to be congratulated on the thoroughness of their research and the skill with which the project has been compiled."
— Matthew Restall
"Liza, I finally got around to spending a pleasant afternoon with MESOLORE and I wanted to let you know personally what an excellent job you [and your team] did with it. I shall sing its praises across the Americas & around the world!"
— Tony Aveni, Colgate University
"A highly innovative and appealing pedagogical tool for teaching Latin American Colonial Discourse. A must."
— Juan Poblete, UC Santa Cruz
While there are several interesting surveys of Mesoamerican history and culture in book form, there has been to date nothing quite like [Mesolore’s] introduction to the primary documents, fundamental questions, and classic scholarly articles in the field…”
Mesolore the project
Between 1995 and 2013 I was the Executive Director of The Mesolore Project (TMP), which produced research and educational e-materials on Mesoamerica. TMP (found at: mesolore.org) focuses on the value of consulting primary documents, reading pictorial writing, understanding the introduction of the alphabet with European contact, learning interdisciplinarily, and, finally, bridging all these areas to contemporary issues. Along with a terrific team of scholars, educators, programmers, designers and funders, and a magnificent co-author and director, Dr. Byron Hamann (U. Chicago then; Ohio University now), I turned TMP’s efforts toward creating a Mesolore cyber-center for scholars, teachers and students of Mesoamerica, an expanded version of an earlier CD ROM set. Under Dr. Hamann’s and my directorship, TMP has made—and continues to make—an impact on the way this part of World History, Geography, Anthropology, Art, and Linguistics is taught and imagined.
“While there are several interesting surveys of Mesoamerican history and culture in book form, there has been to date nothing quite like [Mesolore’s] introduction to the primary documents, fundamental questions, and classic scholarly articles in the field. Those who want a linear narrative history will be disappointed, but the compensation is the richest tapestry now available to the student of the stuff from which those linear narratives are crafted.”
—Dr. Rex Koontz, HAHR
“All in all [Mesolore] packs an academic punch which invites repeated and enthralling study. It is an excellent academic tool for visual comprehension of the past, and is well worth investigating. After spending time navigating this accurate textual and visual compass, users will return highly satisfied from a lengthy and scholarly journey through time and space. It is a timely and desirable passport for teacher and student alike, we all can learn something valuable here.”
—Wendy Eagan, World History Connected
“Mesolore not only helped my students understand social relations in the pre- and post-colonial period, it opened their eyes to how history is produced, both today and in the past. I have used Mesolore with both high school and college students and in every case it brought a rare level of intellectual excitement to the classroom.”
—Jeffrey Lesser, Emory University
2002 Robison, J. Kelly, San Juan College, Journal of the Association of History and Computing. Vol.V:2, Sept. (Read the review)
2003 Koontz, Rex, U. of Houston, Hispanic American Historical Review, May, 372-374 (Download PDF)
2004 Restall, Matthew, “Mesolore: Exploring Mesoamerican Culture. In The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Culture, Vol. 61:2 October, pp. 342-343 (Download PDF)
2005 Wendy Eagan, “Visual Literacy: Letting Our Students See the Past for Themselves: Mesolore and Traditions and Encounters 3/e with Primary Source Investigator (PSI),” in World History Connected, Vol 3: 1, October