Elise Maragliano

Elise Maragliano has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, with a specialty in Mesoamerican archaeology. She is an adjunct professor of Anthropology at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT.

Though Elise’s family is from Pittsburgh, PA, she grew up an army brat, moving every couple years. Her father was stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, for a good portion of her childhood, so her family spent every vacation camping around Europe (they even would camp on ski vacations!). Elise and her brother chased each other through Roman ruins in Trier, Celtic sites in Ireland, and around castles all over Western Europe. Even though she complained at the time when forced to visit yet another museum, it obviously made an impression on her. From an early age, Elise became interested in the evidence of the past that surrounds us—both the ruins and remains of past human history, as well as the evidence of Earth’s history found in rocks and geological formations.

This early interest in history led Elise into a career in museums. She has a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of New Hampshire and an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Her dissertation examined the household archaeology of a Postclassic Zapotec site in Oaxaca, Mexico.

From 2006 to 2011 Elise was the curatorial assistant for Mexican and Central American Archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History. Elise has worked on archaeological digs in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Delaware, as well as in Mexico and Iceland. Elise’s experience in museum outreach education has included working for the New York African Burial Ground Project, as well as with the Moveable Museum Program at the American Museum of Natural History. She has also worked on projects in the education departments of Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA, and with collections management at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, CA.

Elise currently lives in Connecticut with her husband, daughter, and son. In her spare time, Elise enjoys baking, hiking, and running marathons.