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Dr. Carolyn Isaac, Forensic Anthropologist of the MSUFAL
Assistant Professor Carolyn Isaac joined the Department of Anthropology in Fall 2019 and is one of the three acclaimed forensic anthropologists of the Michigan State University Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (MSUFAL) with Dr. Todd Fenton and Dr. Joseph Hefner. Dr. Isaac is the Director of the MSUFAL and oversees the lab’s operations and involvement with forensic casework. While Dr. Isaac recently joined us, she is an MSU alumna whose roots with the lab extend to her time as a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology. After earning her PhD in 2013, Dr. Isaac was a forensic anthropologist and Assistant Professor…
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Alumnus Dr. Henry Miller Awarded J.C. Harrington Medal in Historical Archaeology
The Department of Anthropology is thrilled to congratulate Dr. Henry Miller for being awarded the Society for Historical Archaeology’s J.C. Harrington Medal for 2020. This recognition is the highest international award for scholarly contributions to the field of historical archaeology. An alumnus of the MSU Department of Anthropology, Dr. Miller earned his PhD in 1984 with Dr. Charles “Chuck” Cleland as his advisor. Dr. Miller is the first MSU graduate to receive the honor and expresses that this department made a significant impact on his life. The award was presented to Dr. Miller at the society’s annual conference in recognition…
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Online Teaching in the Department with Dr. Adán Quan and Ethan Watrall
Since the onset of the pandemic, classes at MSU have been primarily online to promote health and safety efforts. The shift from in-person to remote classes prompted significant reconfigurations of the fall and spring semesters’ courses to online formats. Throughout this transition, Dr. Adán Quan and Ethan Watrall have provided tremendous support in modifying classes as the Department of Anthropology’s resident experts in remote education. Their assistance has included creating an online teaching guide for instructors and holding group and individual sessions with faculty to help develop their courses, work through technical or tool-based issues, and address topics of engagement…
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The Morton Village Archaeological Project with Dr. Jodie O’Gorman
Associate Professor, and previous longtime Chair of the Department, Jodie O’Gorman has co-directed the Morton Village Archaeological Project for the past twelve years. Dr. O’Gorman’s research focuses on post-migration cultural interactions and the question of violence and cooperation in the pre-Columbian mid-continent of North America. Dr. O’Gorman became interested in late prehistoric villages of the upper Midwest region in 1987, when she worked on a large longhouse community identified as “Oneota” by archaeologists. Her dissertation focused on gender, domestic economics and social complexities as seen through the longhouses and associated burials at that site. Her interest in Oneota and curiosity…
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Investigating and improving water conservation programs in urban Tucson, AZ with Dr. Lucero Radonic
Over the past six years, Assistant Professor Lucero Radonic has conducted ethnographic research on the strategies used by cities and urban residents to adapt to climate change and make a home where drought and extreme heat events have become protracted conditions. Dr. Radonic’s research has specifically focused on people’s intimate relationship to water by examining water management policies and practices in Tucson, Arizona. In collaboration with the city, Dr. Radonic has worked on analyzing some of their water conservation programs and identifying ways to improve them. One of these water conservation programs promotes the use of rainwater harvesting, which is…
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Understanding the past through bones: Dr. Gabriel Wrobel and the MSU Bioarchaeology Laboratory
In the MSU Bioarchaeology Laboratory, graduate and undergraduate students learn how to read the lives—and deaths—of individuals and groups from the past. The laboratory was established in 2012 by Associate Professor Gabriel Wrobel, who has conducted numerous excavations and research projects on ancient Maya sites in Belize. As a bioarchaeologist, Dr. Wrobel focuses on the analysis and interpretation of skeletal remains from archaeological contexts. One of his primary research interests involves analyzing how Maya communities used cave and rock shelters for ceremonial and burial purposes, some sites reaching back 2,000 years. He also examines how changes in the rituals performed…
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Fieldwork Photography Contest Winners 2020
Congratulations to the winners of our 2020 Anthropology Fieldwork Photography Contest. Thank you to everyone who entered photos and to our judges from across the department. The photos were truly amazing and are a stunning reflection of the fieldwork in this department. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ To read the full newsletter, click here.
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College Recognizes PhD Student Micayla Spiros as Outstanding Researcher
This spring, PhD student Micayla Spiros received the inaugural College of Social Science Graduate Student Research Award. This award is presented to one graduate student from the entire College of Social Science who initiates and conducts original research and demonstrates a clear potential for continued research excellence. Spiros is a graduate student in the MSU Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (MSUFAL) who studies how variation in the human skeleton can aid in the identification of unknown remains. Spiros’s research focuses on macromorphoscopic (MMS) variation in the postcranial skeleton, which involves examining the expression of human variation in the skeleton below the skull.…
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Dr. Chantal Tetreault Receives Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award
Associate Professor Chantal Tetreault has won a coveted Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award. Dr. Tetreault specializes in linguistic and cultural anthropology and her recent work has primarily focused on issues of migration and social change in France. More generally, her research illuminates how cultural processes of identity construction are achieved through everyday language use. Dr. Tetreault’s award will support her research project, “What is Arabic Good For? Future Directions and Current Challenges of Arabic Language Educational Reform in France.” Currently, only 0.2% of all middle and high school students who take a second language in France have access to Arabic,…
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Dr. Mara Leichtman Awarded Fellowship of the Luce/ACLS Program in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs
Dr. Mara Leichtman has been awarded a prestigious fellowship of the Luce/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Program in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs. Dr. Leichtman is an Associate Professor of Anthropology affiliated with the Muslim Studies Program, African Studies Center, and Asian Studies Center. Her research interests focus on the interconnections among religion, migration, politics, and economic development through examining Muslim institutions and the communities they serve. Luce/ACLS Fellowships support scholars in the humanities and social sciences pursuing research on any aspect of religion in international contexts with a desire to convey their specialist knowledge to the media. The…