Throughout the month of May, we celebrate Asian Pacific Islander Desi American/Asian (APIDA/A) Heritage Month and highlight the important role that the members of this community have played in our shared history. We also spotlight members of the MSU community who strive to uplift these individuals and advance belonging through research and advocacy.

Our May Access Champion is Stacey Camp, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Director of the MSU Campus Archeology Program and MSU Museum Curator of Archaeology. She came to Michigan State in 2017 after following the work of the late Lynne Goldstein for several years and being inspired by her creation of the Campus Archaeology Program.

Camp has always been motivated by the ways in which archaeology can both illuminate the past and connect it with modern individuals. “Archaeology is a really great mechanism for sharing stories,” she said. “People are automatically drawn to things that they can touch and experience.”

Michigan State’s extensive use of digital archaeology has afforded Camp the ability to expand upon her research into 19th and 20th century Asian American experiences that she first began in graduate school. In particular, Camp has continued to publish her findings from excavations of the Kooskia Internment Camp in Idaho.

“If I hadn’t come to Michigan State, I wouldn’t have been able to build the Internment Archaeology Digital Archive that shares the stories and archaeology of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in Idaho in our country during World War II,” she said.

Camp’s initial interest in the racial politics and history of migration stemmed from lingering questions she had from growing up in Orange County, California near the Mexico-United States border. Her dissertation project examined the conditions faced by migrant workers living in company housing in California while working for an American railroad company. This project laid the groundwork for much of her archeological and archival research into Japanese American experiences both prior and during World War II.

Camp primarily researches incarcerated Japanese individuals who failed to receive American citizenship due to exclusionary laws but were still housed in US internment camps. She compares and contrasts official government records kept during the time of internment with physical evidence excavated from the camps. “Archaeology is really important to adding to the story and revealing things we might not know about,” she said.

“We hear a lot in history classes about incarceration camps in Europe, but it’s also good to be aware of things that happened right here, to people who in many cases were American citizens,” Camp added. “None of these people committed any crimes. Their only crime was being Japanese American.”

Through this research, Camp has also developed a digital curriculum kit that grade school teachers can utilize to educate students on this history. In addition to examining the items that Japanese Americans brought with them to internment camps, she also has been cataloging objects from a Japanese American community in Santa Barbara that reveal what these individuals left behind. Through this project, she has been engaging her own students with hands-on work tracing this unique part of American history.

“It’s a huge collection, and our students have been analyzing a number of ceramics that no one has yet identified in our field,” she said. “I try to involve my students in all of my research.”

APIDA/A Heritage Month brings to mind for Camp not only the importance of sharing these stories with the wider public, but making efforts to individuals directly impacted by historical events in the discoveries. One of the most poignant moments in her career took place at a visit to an excavation site in Colorado, where one of the Japanese American women incarcerated there when she was a child had returned to help excavate the very same barrack she was imprisoned in all those years ago.

“I want people who are connected with those histories to be doing this research,” Camp said. “That’s what is exciting to me, seeing that the next generation [of researchers] are people that are connected to this history who might have different research questions and findings than someone who isn’t a descendant member of that community.”

Honorees’ views are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the College of Social Science.

Priyanka Jayakodi, a fifth year PhD candidate in cultural anthropology specializing in medical and environmental anthropology, has been named the recipient of the 2026 College of Social Science Graduate Student Research Award. This award is given each year to an outstanding graduate student in the college whose research exemplifies innovative and transformative achievement in their field of study.

Priyanka’s research focuses on ecological bodily health, chronic illness, water, gender, state violence, and visual ethnography. She has presented her work at several international conferences, including the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting.

The research recognized for this award, which is titled, “The Chronicity of Militarism: Sri Lanka’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic,” appears in the  Covid’s Chronicities: From Urgency to Stasis in a Pandemic Era (2025). It began as a class paper in her advisor Dr. Heather Howard’s Medical Anthropology (ANP 834) class.

“What started as an effort to understand how the then Sri Lankan government managed the pandemic gradually evolved through conference presentations, ethnographic fieldwork, and feedback from mentors into a published book chapter. So, for me, as a graduate student, this award is especially meaningful because it validates that long journey of developing an idea from a course paper into a published scholarly article,” Jayakodi explained.

Priyanka’s work on this paper has also been recognized by the 2022 Shao Chang Lee Best Paper Competition for graduate student papers by the MSU Asian Studies Center.

The MSU Department of Anthropology is proud to recognize Priyanka for this outstanding achievement.

The Michigan State University Department of Anthropology is proud to announce Melissa Teja as its Outstanding Senior. This award recognizes a graduating senior in each department with an exceptional academic record, major contributions to the department and their ability to balance rigorous scholarship with extracurriculars.
Melissa is a native of Johns Creek, Georgia and is the president of the MSU Anthropology Club. She is also currently serving as Co-Chair of the MSU President’s Student Advisory Council. In addition to this, Teja is member of the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority and last year served on the Panhellenic Council: the governing body of the 14 National Panhellenic Conference sororities on campus. Melissa is also a recipient of the College of Social Science Dean’s Student Advisory Council’s Leadership Award.
Teja credits her part of her success in the department to faculty mentors Gabe Wrobel, Stacey Camp and Joe Hefner. Their influence has led her to pursue a PhD in anthropology with a focus in bioarcheology from the University of Pittsburgh after graduation.
“The classes and the opportunities that I’ve had to learn here have been incredible. I’ve had the opportunity to take graduate level courses here in the department, and the ability to conduct and present research at several conferences. The level of support that I’ve gotten from the professors in the department has been incredible,” Teja stated.
Melissa’s student research has included presenting at the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) through the MSU Undergraduate Research Office where she also works as a research ambassador. “I worked on a project that stemmed off the field work that I conducted in Belize with Dr. Wrobel as part of his lab. I followed it up by doing a larger scale project that I presented last year. This year, I’ve been working on a remote sensing project,” Teja said. Melissa is also set to present her research as part of the College of Social Science Dean’s Assistantship and Andrew Undergraduate Fellowship at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in San Francisco the week of graduation.

As Melissa’s time at MSU concludes, she remembers fondly the friends she made along the way and her time spent getting involved on campus.
“Get involved. Go out of your way to meet people and talk to people. I think it is incredibly beneficial to make friends and meet the people that you’re working with. I really couldn’t have gotten to where I am if I didn’t have the friends that I made”.
In addition to her friends, Melissa credits her grandparents as a strong reason why she chose to be a Spartan.
“I really want to acknowledge my grandparents. They’re the whole reason that I chose MSU in the first place. My grandparents met here on campus in their senior year. I was raised to love MSU sports. We watch the football games together; we talk about basketball. I was really influenced to apply here because I grew up hearing amazing stories about the community at MSU and the incredible alumni network. Their influence really inspired me to get where I’m going and I just can’t thank them enough,” she ended.
The department congratulates Melissa on this well-deserved honor and thanks her for her dedication to the Spartan anthropology community. We wish her the best in Pittsburgh and beyond.

The onset and continuing impacts of global climate change has had a marked impact on the discovery of archaeological sites worldwide, including in Michigan.  Professor Emeritus Dr. William Lovis explores this issue through a discussion of the discovery of the mid-19^th century Saints’ Rest dormitory on the MSU Campus, recently published in The Michigan Archaeologist in an article titled “Extreme Regional Drought and the Rediscovery of The Agricultural College of the State of Michigan’s First Men’s Dormitory, Saints’ Rest”.  Saints’ Rest dormitory, the first men’s dormitory at MSU, originally stood just east of the current MSU Museum.  The building burned in an early morning conflagration during Christmas break on December 9, 1876. The NE corner of the dormitory was and still is marked by a concrete marker.  It was thought that the remains of the dormitory had been demolished and that nothing remained.  

During a late 1980s drought episode, however, Dr. Lovis noticed that the parched north campus lawn displayed well saturated green grass in right angle lines emanating from the concrete NE corner marker.  Subsequent exploration by Lovis and MSU historical archaeologist Dr. Kenneth Lewis verified that the building foundation was still present below the green grass, and that remains of the dormitory were present and could be recovered archaeologically.  Ultimately, the MSU Anthropology Department excavated Saints’ Rest dormitory as a Sesquicentennial Field School Project.  While this story does not demonstrate that global climate change is desirable, it does demonstrate that its consequences can at times be unexpected, interesting and even beneficial!  Please contact Dr. Lovis for article access at lovis@msu.edu.  

Donald Weir, a 1974 Anthropology master’s graduate, has been presented with the national Society of Historical Archaeology’s Award of Merit for his lifetime of work in archaeology at this year’s national conference.

The SHA Awards of Merit were established in 1988 to recognize the specific achievements of individuals and organizations who have furthered the cause of historical archaeology.

“Donald J. Weir (was selected) for his outstanding leadership and mentorship in Midwest archaeology, pioneering professional practice in cultural resource management, and advancing diversity and education within the field,” the SHA 59^th Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology program proclaimed.

The award ceremony took place Jan. 10 in Detroit.

“The SHA award given to me in Detroit is very special to me,” Weir said. “My dad was an avocational archaeologist and I spent much of my youth going to archaeological meetings at Wayne State University. Early in my professional career with the late Steve Demeter, I worked on several Detroit archaeological projects including the People Mover. My last large project before retirement was the Gordie Howe International Bridge to Canada.”

Weir, who also earned a bachelor of science degree in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from MSU, is the founder and former CEO of the Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group.

He has set up the Commonwealth Heritage Group Diversity Scholarship Award in Archaeology at MSU for undergraduate and graduate students who are or who have been enrolled in archaeology courses offered by the Department of Anthropology.

“Diversity is a big issue in archaeology and anthropology, especially in archaeology,” he said. “When I went into the profession, it was 90% white male, and it’s now probably 60% female, 40% male, but still 90% white. So I want to encourage diversity in the profession, and I think the profession lacks that, and it will be to the betterment of society, and it’s important to have diversity in archaeology especially with indigenous archaeologists.”

In October 2021, Weir received the Distinguished Career Award from the Michigan Archaeological Conference (MAC) which recognizes archaeologists who have demonstrated excellence and contributed significantly and regularly to the advancement of Midwestern archaeology.  He was awarded the 2010 McGimsey-Davis Distinguished Service Award by the Register of Professional Archaeologists, the 2017 ACRA Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Cultural Resources Association, and the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan Historic Preservation Network.

In 1952, Toy Len Goon, a Chinese immigrant widow raising eight children, was selected as U.S. Mother of the Year by the American Mothers Committee of the Golden Rule Foundation. Her story, celebrated during the Cold War as proof of American democracy, is featured in a new book by Dr. Andrea Louie, Goon’s granddaughter, and professor and chair of Michigan State University’s Department of Anthropology.   

Louie’s book, Chinese American Mothering: Toy Len Goon’s Legacy and the Myth of the Model Minority, gives her grandmother the chance to tell her story through her own experiences, not just through the lens of Cold War propaganda. The book uses immigration documents, family interviews, news articles, and secondary sources to illustrate the story of Goon’s struggles and successes alongside the public narrative that framed her as a symbol of democracy triumphing over communism.   

“I grew up knowing the story but hadn’t really thought about its larger historical significance,” Louie said. “There are lots of layers and different perspectives that I bring into conversation in the book—not only how my grandmother’s story was told by the media, but also how she told her own story to her family.” 

She describes her book as an ethnography of the model minority myth, told through the life of her grandmother, whose story played a role in shaping it.   

The book examines how her maternal grandmother’s life was portrayed in the media and used by politicians to promote an image of opportunity in the United States. It also explores the evolution and impacts of the model minority myth, a stereotype created during this time and framed Asian Americans as inherently successful, intelligent and hardworking minorities.  

“The danger of the myth is that the stereotype paints Asians as rule-followers who do everything right and succeed—suggesting that other minorities aren’t working hard enough,” Louie said. “It also minimizes the structural challenges that Asian Americans face and oversimplifies and homogenizes their experiences.”  

Breaking the myth  

What began as a childhood interest in studying the past and human remains has led Dr. Andrea Zurek-Ost to a career in forensic anthropology. She joins the Department of Anthropology as a research associate working on MOSIAC, or Methods of Sex, Stature, Affinity and Age for Identification through Computational Standardization, a project funded by a $2.1 million National Institute of Justice grant.

Zurek-Ost, originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan, developed an interest in anthropology at a young age. In first grade, she recalls learning about the excavation of King Tutankhamen and being fascinated by archaeology, mummies, and the study human remains. In high school, her interests shifted toward health sciences. During an anatomy class, her teacher tasked each student with interviewing a health professional. Zurek-Ost wanted to speak with someone who worked with the deceased.

After calling several police departments for leads, she was connected to a graduate student in Michigan State University’s anthropology department. Zurek-Ost was invited to the MSU Forensic Anthropology Lab (MSUFAL) and immediately fell in love with the field.

“I was hooked from that moment,” she said.

Now back in her home state, Zurek-Ost is working with Dr. Joe Hefner, lead principal investigator for MOSIAC. The project involves collecting data from thousands of donor skeletons using a variety of methods. That data will help to develop and train a program that considers information related to the four main parameters of the biological profile: stature, sex, age and population affinity. The program will combine that data into a single algorithm, which will be used to more quickly and accurately bring names to unidentified individuals.

“The unique part of the MOSAIC project will be the way that several different methods come together to produce a holistic biological profile,” Zurek-Ost said. “Something like this has never been attempted at this scale in forensic anthropology.”

Zurek-Ost completed her undergraduate degree from Central Michigan University, her master’s in forensic and biological anthropology at Mercyhurst University, and her Ph.D. in anthropology this past May from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation work focused on archaeologies of warfare, pilgrimage and ephemerality at a site in the Basque Country in northern Spain.

Drawn to MOSIAC for the opportunity to engage in collaborative and multi-institutional research, Zurek-Ost brings years of experience in skeletal analysis, especially skeletal measurements and morphological assessments—skills essential for constructing a biological profile.

For the MOSAIC project, Zurek-Ost is responsible for coordinating with the managers of donated skeletal collections, facilitating data collection trips, determining sampling strategies, and disseminating the results of the research, including writing grant reports.

“Forensics makes a difference to individuals and also to communities on a larger humanitarian scale,” Zurek-Ost said. “It’s a beautiful thing when a passion you have can positively impact other people.”

Outside of work, Zurek-Ost enjoys photography, playing the piano and guitar, and consulting on bioarcheological projects in Iraqi Kurdistan and Spain. She also mentors students interested in gaining experience with forensic science research.

Zurek-Ost said she is looking forward to the mentoring aspect of MOSIAC.

“Any way you can incorporate compassion into your work is incredibly powerful—it impacts everyone you work with,” she said.