Rachel Schloss







Education

Doctoral Student, Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2021- present

Masters of Science, Archaeological Anthropology, University of Toronto, 2020

Bachelors of Arts; (Honors), Archaeology and Visual Studies, University of Toronto, 2018

Areas of Interest

Architectural Construction Technologies, Inca Archaeology, Andean Archaeology, Colonial Andes, Archaeology of Colonialism in the Americas, Adobe/ Mudbrick, Place-Making, Temporality, Geoarchaeology.

Profile

Rachel Schloss (she/her/hers) is a PhD student at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA. Her doctoral research focuses on architecture and construction (technology, adaptation, and meaning) in Inca architecture from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries AD. 

Before joining the Cotsen Institute, Rachel’s research focused on construction technologies in the Jequetepeque Valley on the North Coast of Peru. She worked with Dr. Edward Swenson of the University of Toronto at the large urban complex of Cañoncillo (Proyecto Jatanca-Huaca Colorada-Tecapa), where she undertook a comparative study of adobe brickwork at Huaca Colorada and Tecapa, neighboring Middle Horizon sites. In this study, she compared design and geoarchaeological data on adobe bricks at the sites to understand their relationship to each other, and the socio-political transformations that occurred at the end of their occupation.

Currently, Rachel is a co-coordinator of the Andean Lab and contributes to the Andean Lab Instagram. She is also the co-organizer of the Andean Working Group.

Field Experience

Proyecto Jatanca-Huaca Colorada-Tecapa, Jequetepeque Valley, La Libertad, Peru

Huqoq Excavation Project, Galilee, Israel

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, “Introduction to Anthropology”, Department of Anthropology, Professors Max Friesen, Ivan Kalmar, and Shawn Lehman. University of Toronto, 2018-2020.

Languages

Spanish, Advanced

French, Advanced

Portuguese, Intermediate

Hebrew, Beginner

Awards

Graduate Certificate in Early Modern Studies, Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, UCLA

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Master’s Fellowship

University of Toronto Graduate Research Fellowship

Archaeology Centre Research Fellowship, University of Toronto

Biblical Archaeology Dig Scholarship

Canadian Friends of Hebrew University Travel Award

Advisors

Stella Nair