Fred Valdez began teaching and research at The University of Texas in 1988 and currently oversees the Archaeological Studies Program. He also directs the Center for Archaeological and Tropical Studies. His research interests include the study of material culture such as ceramic and lithic technologies, settlement patterns and small site studies, and the early emergence of social and political complexity; as well as the history of archaeological investigations in Central America, cultural continuity and transition in Latin America and the American Southwest, Mesoamerican prehistory, and occasional seminars on technological aspects of material culture analyses.


Valdez directs a university archaeological field school each summer in Belize. The Belize research is part of a twenty-year program of studies into ancient Maya society. Beyond research in the Maya area, Valdez has been a Fulbright Scholar to Guatemala (1991-92) and was honored with a Taft Lecture Fellowship at the Univ. of Cincinnati.