Daniela Balanzátegui is an assistant professor of historical and collaborative archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America in the Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Boston. She is also the Director of the Latin American Historical Archaeology Lab (UMass B). She obtained her doctoral and master’s degrees from the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby-Canada). Her research is mainly focused on Afro-Ecuadorian historical strategies of Cimarronaje (marronage) to survive enslavement, colonialism, structural racism, and gender discrimination.

Since 2012, she has developed a community-based archaeological project in collaboration with Afro-Ecuadorian communities from a feminist standpoint. Her investigation examines material culture, ancestral territories, historical narratives, and oral traditions of African-descendant populations. The project that takes place in the Chota Valley (Provinces of Carchi-Imbabura) in collaboration with the grassroots organization of Black women, National Coordinator of Black Women- Carchi Chapter provides a space for ethical and respectful work in heritage management, public and community archaeology as an instrument for historical reparations.

Daniela has been published in English and Spanish with an emphasis on coauthoring with Afrodescendent leaders and scholars. Dr. Balanzátegui served on the Blue Ribbon Commission, “Engaging Africans and their Descendants in Andean Studies,” for the Institute of Andean Studies (IAS) (2020-2021). In 2022, Daniela was elected as part of the Board of Directors of the IAS.  She was part of the Executive Committee of the Ninth Meeting of Archaeological Theory of South America (TAAS)-Ibarra, Ecuador, and the International Committee of Tenth Meeting of Archaeological Theory of South America (TAAS)-Oaxaca (Mexico). Daniela, as part of the feminist collective Arquetipa (Arquelogía en Femenino), led the development of the first “Code of Ethics with Gender Focus for the Ecuadorian Archaeology” (2023).