Keynote Presentation

Lisa J. Lucero (PhD, UCLA) is a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She focuses on ritual and power, water management, the impact of climate change on society, sustainability in tropical regions, and the ancestral Maya. She has conducted archaeology in Belize for over 35 years, authoring eight books and an array of other publications. She uses past and present Maya knowledge and practices to generate sustainable solutions to address global climate change, as Lucero does in her 2025 book, Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet (Oxford University Press).

For my keynote lecture, I discuss my 2025 book, Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet, including the Maya inclusive or non-anthropocentric worldview where they co-exist with nonhumans as part of the world, not separate from it. I highlight how the ancestral Maya collaborated with nonhumans resulting in a tropical landscape with green cities, rural farmsteads, gardens, fields, biodiverse forests, and sacred places. The Maya sustainably farmed for millennia without destroying their environment and provided tribute to their kings in 100’s of cities. In return, kings performed vital ceremonies and maintained reservoirs through the annual dry season—a balancing act that succeeded for over 1,000 years. Maya insights are vital for the survival of our planet and call for collaborating with rather than dominating the nonhuman world, and their traditional knowledge provides concrete solutions to sustainably address climate change and environmental degradation. Maya resilience is a testament for how to move forward, and my book provides a roadmap for families to global corporations on how to do so.