Associate Professor, Anthropology; Associate Curator, UMMAA; Senior Fellow, Michigan Society of Fellows
[email protected]High Latitude and Western North American Archaeology; Anthropological Archaeology; Archaeological Science; Environmental Archaeology; Prehistoric Archaeology; Archaeology at Michigan; South American Archaeology
Areas of Expertise
- Hunter-gatherers
- Human ecology
- Cultural evolution
- Stone tool technologies (lithics)
- Patagonia
Research Topics
I study the influences of ecological, demographic, and social factors on Holocene hunter-gatherers’ behaviors and broader cultural change through time. My current field projects in farthest southern South America--Patagonia--combine archaeological data with evolutionary modeling to address questions at the intersection of human behavioral ecology and cultural transmission theory. My current lab-based projects are designed to test and develop models of cultural transmission and technological evolution, and I was recently awarded a fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2022-2024) to train in engineering and explore the the effects of wind on hunter-gatherers' livelihoods and technologies.
Courses
- Doing Archaeology: Essential Theory and Methods
- Ancient Technologies
- Human Ecology
- Archaeology I (grad seminar)
