Dr. Spivak’s research interests include representations of gender, non-Western aesthetics, and the agency of art. Her interdisciplinary dissertation entitled Local Identity in the Face of Empire: Loro Ceramics of the Middle Horizon Peruvian South Coast defines and analyzes the Loro ceramic style of the south coast of Peru (c. 700-1000 CE). Undertaking the first in-depth study of Loro culture and its material remains, Dr. Spivak’s dissertation addresses the style, iconography, and objects themselves within their social, political, and natural environment, drawing on theories of ethnicity, practice, power relations, aesthetics, and gender. Dr. Spivak has assisted in archaeological projects in Peru, both excavating and performing lab work.
“Women in Opposition: The Sociopolitical Role of Loro Female Face-neck Jars” (accepted pending revisions, Cambridge Archaeological Journal).
“Metal Artifacts,” in The Nasca World, edited by Katharina Schreiber and Kevin J. Vaughn, London: Routledge Press (invited submission, forthcoming 2017).
“The Incas,” in Encyclopedia of Global Religions, edited by Wade C. Roof and Mark Juergensmeyer, pp. 545-547. Beverly Hills: SAGE Publications, 2012.
“The Women Behind the Empire: Loro Female Representations as Hidden Transcripts of Resistance,” Southeastern College Art Conference, November 1, 2013.
“Were the Nasca ‘Nasca’ During the Middle Horizon?” Society of American Archaeology, April 6, 2013.
“The Local Outside the Empire: Loro Ceramics of the Middle Horizon South Coast of Peru,” College Art Association Conference, February 23, 2012.
“The Turn of the Seasons in Early Hispanic Cuzco: Ceques, Crosses, and Liturgical Cycles,” Sacred and Profane in the Early Modern Hispanic World Symposium, Bloomington, IN, October 17, 2009.
Dr. Deborah Spivak's teaching interests include the art and archaeology of the native Americas, ritual activity and material, museum collection practices and cultural property, and the arts of Iberia.