Allison Apland, Photo by A. Apland, used with permission
Allison Apland is a junior from West Des Moines, Iowa. She is studying Anthropology and History at MSU, is part of the Honors College, and hopes to go to graduate school to study bioarchaeology in the Middle East. She is currently conducting research in the Biomarker Lab for Anthropological Research with Dr. Masako Fujita to investigate questions of food insecurity and nutrition. Her focus is connecting food insecurity with food-based coping strategies and diet. She is presenting her findings about these relationships at the Undergraduate Research Symposium at the American Association of Physical Anthropology meeting in April.
Allison hopes to investigate these kinds of research questions that connect health and culture in a bioarchaeological context in graduate school. She became interested in bioarchaeology as a fieldschool student on Dr. Gabriel Wrobel’s Central Belize Archaeology Survey project this past summer. Allison loves taking archaeology and ancient history classes at MSU, and being in the field is the most fun she’s ever had. This year, she has volunteered every month at Campus Archaeology’s Dig the Past program at the MSU Museum to teach kids about archaeology through hands on learning. Allison is pursuing her interest in the Middle East by taking Arabic classes and pursuing a Muslim Studies specialization. This summer, she will be studying Arabic in Jordan through a Critical Language Scholarship from the US State Department. She is excited for the opportunity to immerse herself in a new culture and improve her language skills.
This year Allison was nominated for the prestigious Beinecke Scholarship. The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 by the Sperry and Hutchinson Company to honor Edwin, Frederick, and Walter Beinecke. The endowment was created to provide a scholarship to enable young men and women of promise to attend graduate school in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Each year Michigan State University nominates one junior to compete for the scholarship, and the Department of Anthropology is proud that Allison has been nominated.
[Included in the Spring 2014 Dept. of Anthropology Newsletter, see complete newsletter here]