Dr. David Stuart

David Stuart is the David and Linda Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Vanderbilt University in 1995, and his BA in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University in 1989 (summa cum laude). His interests in the traditional cultures of Mesoamerica are wide-ranging, with a primary research focus on the archaeology and epigraphy of ancient Maya civilization. For the past four decades he has been active in the ongoing decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing, and in related studies of Maya iconography, religion, and political history.  Stuart’s early contributions to the decipherment led to a MacArthur Fellowship (1984–1989), and he remains the youngest ever recipient of that award. His several books include Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya (Thames and Hudson, 2008), The Order of Days (Random House, 2012), King and Cosmos: A New Interpretation of the Aztec Calendar Stone (Precolumbia Mesoweb Press, 2022) and Spearthrower Owl: A Teotihuacan Ruler in Maya History (Dumbarton Oaks, 2024). Stuart is the director of UT’s Mesoamerica Center in the Department of Art and Art History.