Joyce Marcus is an archaeologist and professor in the Department of Anthropology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Her focus has been primarily on the Zapotec, Maya, and coastal Andean civilizations of Central and South America.
[6] Her book, Emblem and State in the Classic Maya Lowlands: An Epigraphic Approach to Territorial Organization, is the published version of her dissertation.
[7] Marcus has spent her entire teaching career at the University of Michigan, from 1973 to the present, though she has been invited to guest lecture all over the world.
[2][8] William J. Folan invited her to record the Maya monuments at Calakmul, Campeche and surrounding areas in 1983-1984.