Author: Louise Henderson

According to Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), approximately 81,096 military personnel remain unaccounted for. Allison Thomson wants to change that. Thomson, senior anthropology undergraduate at Michigan State University (MSU), was selected for an internship with the DPAA in Omaha, Nebraska. Out of 135 applications, Thomson Read More

An interdisciplinary team comprising of faculty and doctoral students from the Department of Anthropology and Computer Science and Engineering, have found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help forensic anthropologists identify individuals faster and more efficiently.   Members of the Michigan State University Read More

In Dr. Laurie Medina’s new book, Governing Maya Communities and Lands in Belize: Indigenous Rights, Markets, and Sovereignties, she examines the decades-long struggle by Q’eqchi’ and Mopan Maya communities in Belize to win state recognition of their Indigenous right to lands on which they have Read More

Preserving Maya culture matters greatly to Filberto Rash and Dr. Gabriel Wrobel.  Rash, a Q’eqchi’ Maya and principal of the Tumul K’in Center of Learning in the Toledo District of Belize, spent a week on campus in January as a guest of Wrobel, a professor Read More

Associate Professor Dr. Heather Howard of Michigan State University’s Department of Anthropology has always been interested in the politics of food.  “I’ve long been interested in the socio-cultural dimensions of nourishment and how these connect to knowledge about illness and disease,” Howard said. Howard is Read More

Tiny bone needles discovered at an archaeological dig site in Wyoming are helping tell the story of Indigenous communities during the Ice Age in North America. Dr. Madeline Mackie, faculty for the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University, co-authored a new bone needle study Read More

For some, the Ice Age is best understood through the 2002 animated film with a woolly mammoth, ground sloth, and smilodon. For Dr. Madeline Mackie, new assistant professor of anthropology, it’s a bit different. Mackie, originally from Southern California, knew from a young age that Read More

High school students from the Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) recently got a behind-the-scenes look at Michigan State University’s Forensic Anthropology Lab (MSUFAL). In November, these students spent the day on campus meeting MSU students and faculty while exploring labs. Dr. Carolyn Isaac, assistant professor Read More

Professor Emeritus Dr. William Lovis of the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University found something he didn’t expect when studying maize in Michigan. “The most unexpected outcome was the observation that there was a clear separation of living spaces used for residential, food preparation Read More