Arthur Demarest is Ingram Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University and Director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology and Development.  He has published over 30 books or monographs including Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization (Cambridge); Religion and Empire with Geoffrey Conrad (Cambridge); The Petexbatun Archaeological Project:  A Multidisciplinary Study of The Classic Maya Collapse (Vanderbilt); The Terminal Classic:  Collapse, Transition and Transformation (Colorado) edited with Prudence and Don Rice; and Ideology in PreColumbian Civilizations (New Mexico) edited with Geoffrey Conrad.  He annually directs excavations of cities of the ancient Maya civilization and programs of Maya community development in Guatemala.