Alba Menéndez Pereda

Coordinator, Andean Working Group; Coordinator, Andean Working Group; Affiliated Researcher, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
Department: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
albamenendez@ucla.edu
Website

Alba Menéndez Pereda is an Andean Lab Affiliate and a coordinator of the Andean Working Group, a role in which she has served since 2020. She received her Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles where she specialized in the material and visual cultures of the Andes. Previously, she completed her undergraduate and master's degrees at the University of Durham and the University of Cambridge, respectively. Menéndez Pereda's current scholarship examines the making and experiencing of sacredness at the heart of Tahuantinsuyu, the Inca Empire, from imperial Inca times through the early modern period. As an interdisciplinary archaeologist, she brings together architectural, artistic, documentary, and acoustic evidence. Through this approach, Menéndez Pereda reconstructs the physical characteristics of Coricancha, the most important religious center in Tahuantinsuyu, and sheds light on the identity and sensorial experiences of its inhabitants. Her research has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Society for Architectural Historians, the Huntington, the John Carter Brown Library, and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, among others.