Thank you very much for the advice on configuring AUCTeX to compile context files.
Inserting the following snippet in my .emacs (emacs configuration) file worked.
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(eval-after-load 'tex
'(add-to-list
'TeX-command-list
'("ConTeXt" "context --nonstopmode %t"
TeX-run-TeX nil (context-mode) :help "Run ConTeXt")))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
This fix is imperfect because even though context runs properly, AUCTeX reports "ConTeXt: problems after [0] pages"
AUCTeX doesn't believe that the file has been compiled and C-c C-c offers to run context again. It is necessary to select "View"
Some googling suggests that the return codes from context are not properly interpreted by AUCTeX. I'm not sure if this is a context non-standardization or an AUCTeX problem. thoughts?
Best,
Michael