Profile

Ph.D., Tulane University, 2006

Bryan R. Just specializes in ancient Maya art history and hieroglyphic writing. His curatorial responsibilities at the Princeton University Art Museum, however, encompass the entirety of the indigenous Americas, spanning some 5,000 years and artistic production from the southern cone of South America to the Bering Strait. His recent publications include Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik’ Kingdom (2012), “Printed Pictures of Maya Sculpture” (2012), “Mysteries of the Maize God” (2009), “Modifications of Ancient Maya Sculpture” (2005) and “In Extenso Almanacs in the Madrid Codex” (2004). He also contributed to the Princeton University Art Museum’s Handbook of the Collections (2007), and its revised edition (2013). Just served as in-house curator for the exhibition Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, co-curated by William Fitzhugh and Julie Hollowell, from October 2009–January 2010 at Princeton. He also curated Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vases of the Ik’ Kingdom (October 2012–February 2013), which was a finalist for the 2012 Association of Art Museum Curators Outstanding Exhibition in a University Museum. In addition to his museum responsibilities and involvement with the Art and Archaeology department, Just chairs Princeton’s Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) committee and sits with the committee in the Program in Latin American Studies.

Teaching Interests

Just regularly teaches an introductory lecture course on the art of Mesoamerica, and topical seminars on a variety of subjects, including the Maya, the Olmec, and the American Southwest. His courses consistently involve intimate study of original works of art from the Princeton University Art Museum’s collections. He has also previously taken his students to explore private collections as well as archaeological sites and museums in Chiapas, Mexico.