Eleanor Harrison-Buck researches Mesoamerican archaeology, Maya culture, complex societies, social organization and identity, religious ideology, and technical and stylistic studies of material culture. She now directs the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project in Belize, examining the deep history of the eastern Belize Watershed from Preclassic to Colonial times. Her research focuses on the Classic Maya “collapse” period and subsequent Spanish conquest, two periods of major cultural transformation throughout Mesoamerica.

Her research interests include social identity and power, divine kingship, religious ideology, and technical and stylistic studies of architecture and material culture.