Sandra Montón-Subías

Sandra Montón-Subías

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Humanities

1988: BSc Geography and History (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain). 1993: PhD History (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). I began my research at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, studying processes of emerging complexity in Mediterranean Bronze Age societies. Since then, I have worked at the University of Athens, at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, at the University of Cambridge, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, at the University of California Santa Cruz, at the Northwestern University, at the National Taiwan University, at the University of Guam, at German Archaeological Institute/Roman-Germanic Commission in Frankfurt and at the University of Oslo. I was funding member and co-chair of the EAA working community AGE  (https://www.archaeology-gender-europe.org/) for the period 2009-2015.


Research interests

I am an archaeologist with broad interests in social and theoretical archaeology. My current fields of research are the Archaeology of Modern Iberian Colonialism, the Archeology of Globalization, and the Archaeology of Gender. Most specifically, I am analysing the consequences that Spanish colonialism and Jesuit missionization had on the native Chamorro populations of Guam and the Mariana Islands (western Pacific), with a specific focus on the effects that such domination had on power relationships, gender systems and maintenance activities. I converge historical written documents,material culture, and oral history in my research. Although I focus on the study of modern colonial processes, I investigate much broader cultural sequences that include previous developments of Latte local oral populations, thus bridging the long-debated prehistory/history divide. 

Selected publications

- Bayman J, Dixon B, Montón-Subías S, & Moragas N 2020. Colonial Surveillance, Lånchos, and the Perpetuation of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Guam, Mariana Islands. In Beaule C, & Douglass, J (eds)The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 222-241.  

- Montón-Subías S, Moragas N & Bayman J 2020, 'The First Missions in Oceania: Excavations at the Colonial Church and Cemetery of San Dionisio at Humåtak (Guam, Mariana Islands)'. Journal of Pacific Archaeology, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 62-73.


Selected research activities

Grants and Research Groups:
  • PI in GenderGLOBAL-Gender and Globalization. From Prehistory to Early Modernity in the Mariana Islands. PID2019-105431GB-100.
  • Scientist in Charge in Colonial Consequences of the Japanese Empire in the Mariana Islands- GAP-884237. MSCA-IF, H2020.
  • PI in ABERIGUA. Archaeology of Iberian Cultural Contact and Colonialism in Guam (western Pacific).
  • PI in MAR-Archaeological mission in Rota (Mariana Islands).
  • PI in Cultura Material, Género y AAMMs en la Configuración de la Globaldiad Transcolonial. EIN 2020.
  • Coordinator of the UPF research group CGM-Colonialism, Gender, Materialities and the UPF research unit RAS-Gender and Social Archaeology.

Invited talks, conferences and workshops:

  • Arqueologías del Colonialism español en Guam: el proyecto ABERIGUA. University of Seville, Jan 2020.
  • Arqueologías del colonialismo ibérico en Marianas. University of Barcelona, Oct 2020.
  • Feminist Epistemologies and Methodologies in Research. A Transdisciplinar Approach. Barcelona, Feb 2020.

Other:

  • Co-coordinator of the UPF Master in Global Archaeology
  • Section Editor Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology
  • PhD Foodways and Colonialism in the Mariana Islands. Introductions, Adaptations, and Transformations during the Jesuit Mission. Verónica Peña Filiu, 28 Jan 2020
  • Master Thesis La Mujer Mapuche. Ángela Cantador, 11 Jun 2020
  • Co-curator exhibition I estoria-ta. Guam and the CHamoru culture, MNA-Museo Nacional de Antropología