The Department of Anthropology encourages all graduate students to apply for The William A. Lovis Research Fund in Environmental Archaeology. This fund is intended to support interdisciplinary environmental archaeological research bridging anthropological archaeology and the natural, physical, biological and earth sciences. It is designed to underwrite and enhance the work of graduate students who investigate human/environment interaction for deeper time periods prior to Euro-American colonization episodes worldwide.
How to apply: Application should be made via letter (no more than two pages in PDF format) addressed to the Archaeology Faculty and must be sent to Cathi Pierce (piercec7@msu.edu) by the listed deadline with the name of the fund as the subject heading. Applicants should provide an overview of their progress in their program of study and eligibility, description of their research or other eligible activity, and a specific discussion about their anticipated use of the funding. Any applicant who previously received any department archaeology award (William A. Lovis Research Fund in Environmental Archaeology, Alumni and Friends Fund for Archaeology, or Lynne Goldstein Fellowship) must also include a separate written summary of no more than one page providing details on what was done with the previous award(s), how this new application is distinct from previously funded work, and how the new proposed work articulates with previously funded work (if relevant).
In addition to the letter of application, a detailed budget and budget justification (no more than two pages in PDF format) must be included in the application material. All applicants should have their advisor’s approval for the application and proposed activity.
Eligibility: Applicant must be a graduate student enrolled in anthropological archaeology within The Department of Anthropology, specializing in interdisciplinary environmental research and in good standing with MSU.
Funding: The total amount of funding available this year will be $1500
The Lynne Goldstein Fellowship Fund is open to graduate students enrolled in the MSU Department of Anthropology, with preference given to those students who have participated in the Campus Archaeology Program. Funds are intended to assist students doing their dissertation research, which does not need to be linked to Campus Archaeology.
How to apply: Application should be made via letter (no more than two pages in PDF format) addressed to the Archaeology Faculty and must be sent to Cathi Pierce (piercec7@msu.edu) by the listed deadline with the name of the fund as the subject heading. Applicants should provide an overview of their progress in their program of study, description of their research, and a discussion of how the funds will support their ongoing dissertation work. Any applicant who previously received any department archaeology award (William A. Lovis Research Fund in Environmental Archaeology, Alumni and Friends Fund for Archaeology, or Lynne Goldstein Fellowship) must also include a separate written summary of no more than one page providing details on what was done with the previous award(s), how this new application is distinct from previously funded work, and how the new proposed work articulates with previously funded work (if relevant).
In addition to the letter of application, a detailed budget and budget justification (no more than two pages in PDF format) must be included in the application material. The committee requires that the applicant’s dissertation advisor send a statement of endorsement for the application via email to Cathi Pierce (piercec7@msu.edu). Experience (if any) in the Campus Archaeology Program should be indicated in the application letter.
Eligibility: Open to both graduates and undergraduates and is intended to support the research, scholarly activities, and professional development of MSU Department of Anthropology archaeology students.
Funding: The total amount of funding available this year will be $1500
The Altimare Professional Development Scholarship is intended to support graduate students enrolled in the MSU Department of Anthropology to gain practical skills, training, certification, professional development and/or qualitative data software experience, contributing to tangible and recognized competencies by future employers and aid the student in being a competitive applicant for non-academic jobs post-graduation. Examples include: conference training (tutorials/workshops) to learn new skills, techniques or specialties; online certifications, (LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, Coursera) on project management, UX Design, video production; purchase of qualitative data analysis software (MAXQDA, NVivo, Atlas.ti), etc. Please note that a total of $1,000 is available this year. This amount can be divided and distributed to one or more students.
How to apply: Application is made via letter (1-2 pages) addressed to the Altimare Scholarship Committee. Applicants should provide an overview of their progress in the program of study, and how the scholarship will be used to benefit their progress. The committee requires that the dissertation advisor send a statement of endorsement for the application via email. Letter of application and endorsement should be submitted via email to Cathi Pierce at piercec7@msu.edu with Altimare Scholarship in the subject line of the email.
The Whiteford Cultural Anthropology Field Work Scholarship is awarded to cultural anthropology graduate students in the MSU Department of Anthropology with preference given to students conducting research in Latin America. This $2,000 award is intended to assist students doing their dissertation field work by helping cover key associated costs, such as transportation and lodging. Eligibility: Must be a graduate student in cultural anthropology enrolled in the MSU Department of Anthropology.
How to apply: Application is made via letter (1-2 pages) addressed to the Whiteford Scholarship Committee. Applicants should provide an overview of their progress in the program of study, a description and timeline of their dissertation research, and how the scholarship will benefit that research. The committee requires that the dissertation advisor send a statement of endorsement for the application via email. Letter of application and endorsement should be submitted via email to Cathi Pierce at piercec7@msu.edu with Whiteford Scholarship in the subject line of the email.
Join the Anthropology Department for a lecture series, this time with Dr. Eric J. Montgomery! Montgomery will host the lecture “Spirits, Ancestors, and Taboo: Divination as Ethnographic Method” on March 13 from 3:30 P.M. – 4:30 P.M. in McDonel Hall C103.
Divination has long fascinated ethnographers, and the amount of case studies throughout the world proliferate in the academic literature. Like “witchcraft” and “sorcery” these indigenous thought and belief systems are often mystified inside and outside of academia. Many view divination and related concepts as “tradition,” “custom,” and “historical survivals,” however, they are actually innovative, adaptive, and also growing in importance in places like Western Africa, Latin America, and The Caribbean. This lecture will take a comparative approach to various ethnographic examples of divination from Western Africa (Ifa/Fa/Afa) and Oceania writ large and assess their importance for decolonizing anthropology today.
The Society of Antiquaries elected Dr. Ethan Watrall, associate professor in the Michigan State University Department of Anthropology, as a fellow. The Society of Antiquaries was founded in 1707, and represents the oldest learned and prominent scholarly society focusing on heritage and archaeology. The society’s 3,000 elected members include some of the most prominent scholars and professionals in heritage and archaeology such as national museum directors, curators, directors of heritage preservation trusts and non-profits, and members of the UK parliament. Dr. Watrall is the first MSU professor to have ever been granted this distinction, only the fourth elected from the Big 10, and the ninth from the United States.
“Being named a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries is enormously important to me as it is a recognition of the importance of my work to the fields of heritage and archaeology,” Dr. Ethan Watrall said. “It also reflects very well on the Department of Anthropology by shining a spotlight on the outstanding research, teaching, and outreach we’re doing in heritage, preservation and community engagement.”
Dr. Watrall was elected due to the notoriety of his research, teaching and outreach in the use of digital methods and computational approaches to document, preserve, contextualize, and provide access to tangible heritage and archaeology.
“I strive to leverage digital methods to preserve and provide access to archaeological and heritage materials, collections, knowledge, and data in order to facilitate research, advance knowledge, fuel interpretation, and democratize understanding and appreciation of the past.”
In most cases, his research leans towards providing a mechanism for the public to engage with and understand our collective heritage.
“But it’s not just about public access to digitized heritage,” he explained. “My work also focuses on collaborating with communities to digitize their own heritage and tell their own stories about their past with that digitized heritage. A lot of my work also intersects with museums and other collections holding heritage institutions, building workflows and platforms to digitize, provide access to, and contextualize natural and cultural collections that are often completely inaccessible to the public, communities, students, and scholars.”
While Dr. Watrall has directed or co-directed many externally funded digital heritage and archaeology projects, a recent example of his work in this area is the Internment Archaeology Digital Archive (IADA), which he co-directs with his Department of Anthropology colleague Dr. Stacey Camp. Currently funded by the National Park Service and developed in collaboration with MSU’s Matrix: The Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences, IADA is an open digital archive that will host, preserve, and provide broad public access to digitized collections of archaeological materials, archival documents, oral histories and memorabilia that speak to the experiences of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II in the United States.
“A significant amount of the digitization work on this project is happening in my lab at MSU (Digital Heritage Innovation Lab), including using various techniques to create 3D scans of artifacts and objects from two sites of internment and incarceration – the Minidoka National Historic Site (the site of Minidoka War Relocation Center) and the Kooskia Internment Camp While IADA is primarily designed to address the immediate needs of Kooskia and Minidoka’s descent communities, Japanese Americans, and scholars of Asian American studies and incarceration, the project’s audience extends well beyond these groups. In its broadest, IADA provides testimony and material evidence of the trauma wrought by incarceration and discrimination.”
Additionally, the focus of Dr. Watrall’s teaching helps to prepare future generations of Anthropologists to engage in digital methods and computational approaches to preserve heritage. He regularly teaches ANP 412: Methods and Practice in Digital Heritage and ANP 465: Field Methods in Digital Heritage – the only class of its kind in the U.S.
“Beyond my curricular efforts, I also direct the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative, which provides graduate students interested in cultural heritage with the space to learn how to apply digital methods and computational approaches to their work,” he said.
All new fellows are formally admitted to the society during a ceremony at Burlington House, the society’s headquarters in London, where they sign the register of admissions and are welcomed into the society. Dr. Watrall hopes to attend the ceremony the next time he’s in London.
“It is my hope that the being named a fellow will help greatly increase the number of graduate students wanting to come to MSU to work with me and my colleagues in the department, provide more opportunities to secure external funding to support our work, provide more opportunities for innovative collaboration with other scholars and units around campus, and encourage the college and university to invest more resources in our work and allow us to grow and extend our reach and impact.”
To learn more about the MSU Department of Anthropology, visit anthropology.msu.edu.
Alumna Assistant Professor Dr. Susan Kooiman (SIU- Edwardsville), Professor Emerita Dr. Lynne Goldstein, Professor Emeritus Dr. William Lovis and MSU Geography Professor Dr. Alan Arbogast publish in Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. This collaborative paper, titled, “The Precontact Archaeology of the Michigan State University Campus and the Campus Archaeology Program (CAP)”, presents the origins and role of the MSU CAP, and in doing so frames the diverse knowledge bases and intellectual partnerships through which the indigenous pre-EuroAmerican occupation of what is now the MSU campus is currently known. Drawing on oral accounts, MSU Museum collections, CAP excavations, and linkages with the landscape evolution of the campus, this comprehensive effort documents Indigenous use of the banks of the Red Cedar River at MSU for over 3000 years. It not only provides a substantial foundation for future campus research, but also presents important insights into the deep Native American heritage of lands now occupied by MSU.
Abstract: Here we summarize the current state of knowledge about the precontact archaeology of the Michigan State University (MSU) campus as revealed through work conducted by the MSU Campus Archaeology Program (CAP), the MSU Museum, and the Department of Anthropology. A multipronged approach places this collective work in programmatic, institutional, historical, geographic, and archaeological context. The history of CAP and its impact on campus operations and understandings of campus history demonstrate the strength of such programs. Unpacking the MSU Museum collections reveals additional insight into the deep Indigenous history of university lands. Results of the first systematic excavations of a precontact Archaic site on the MSU campus, the Beaumont West site (20IN205), are reported alongside accounts of systematic archaeological survey conducted over a span of 70 years, recent geomorphological work, and the cumulative collections of precontact material culture from the MSU campus housed at the MSU Museum. Collectively, this paints an engaging multifaceted story of an ever-changing natural and social landscape that highlights the value of understanding the role college campuses can play in providing information about the distant as well as the recent past.
Levi Webb with other summer MSU Archaeology Field School students. Photo courtesy of Levi Webb.
Levi Webb’s academic advisor suggested he add a minor in computational modeling or mathematics, a more “typical” pathway for an astrophysics major, but after taking anthropology-based ISS courses on different cultures and perspectives, Webb decided to follow his passion.
“As someone who earned an International Baccalaureate Diploma in high school and, thus, came to MSU with a considerable amount of credits, I ambitiously decided to fully major in a second field that (for the most part) has nothing in common with my first field of study,” he said. “The bonus is that I get to learn about two of my most significant interests!”
Webb is currently a junior astrophysics and anthropology major with an undecided anthropology subfield.
“I’ve taken a very wide sample of classes in each field of anthropology, so it’s hard to say that I’ve liked one above the rest,” he said.
This past summer, Webb participated in the MSU Archaeology Field School.
“Dr. Camp’s field school this past summer was very well-rounded,” he said. “Students got experience with many archaeological processes, such as survey, excavation, archival research, and artifact photography and cataloging. I feel honored to have had such an experience in an incredibly welcoming and open-minded environment, and I had a ton of fun!”
This semester, Webb is working in Dr. Stacey Camp’s Kooskia Lab with artifacts from World War II Japanese internment camps in Kooskia, Idaho. Dr. Camp is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, Director of the Campus Archaeology Program, and new department undergraduate director.
“Because this archaeology is relatively recent history, I know that my work is important to the living relatives of the people whose belongings are in the collection,” Webb said. “Dr. Camp has talked to me about people who reach out to her about the importance of the database she’s creating of artifacts. That connection encourages me to do excellent work in the lab.”
In addition to his work at the Kooskia Lab, Webb also works in the MSU Observational Research Program (MORP), and he is involved in multiple physics clubs across campus such as Astronomy Club and the Society of Physics Students.
“I’m the vice president of MSU’s high-powered Rocketry Club, and I attend LGBT social gatherings whenever I have time,” he said. “This semester, I’ve also been attending a lot of physics and astronomy seminars/colloquia, and I have been getting more involved in anthropology, too, through discussions with professors and grad students.”
Involved in many courses, programs and clubs, Webb has important advice for students:
“Stressing out only makes everything harder, and it becomes a vicious cycle. Just remember that your professors are people too, and they’ll most likely be understanding if you’re struggling and need help. And, a lot of anthropology professors really like talking to students, even if you don’t need help!”
Webb plans to begin stellar astrophysical research on supernovae, and plans to get his Master’s in anthropology and his doctorate in astrophysics. He hopes to inspire other students to create their own path.
“You know yourself best. Judge your limits based on where you know them to be set – aim above the expectations of people who underestimate you and don’t let their perceptions of you alter your sense of self.”
Department of Anthropology Assistant Professor Dr. Kurt Rademaker and co-authors Gordon Bromley (lead-author), Aaron Putnam, Brenda Hall, Holly Thomas, Allie Balter-Kennedy, Stephen Barker, and Donald Rice publish in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. The article, titled, “Lateglacial Shifts in Seasonality Reconcile Conflicting North Atlantic Temperature Signals” presents glacial geologic evidence from Scotland revealing patterns of late Pleistocene (Ice Age) climatic change during the Younger Dryas interval (12,900-11,700 years ago). These results improve understanding of the mechanisms of ocean-atmosphere circulation that operate across the North Atlantic region.
Abstract: The accelerating flux of glacial meltwater to the oceans due to global warming is a potential trigger for future climate disturbance. Past disruption of Atlantic Ocean circulation, driven by melting of land-based ice, is linked in models to reduced ocean-atmosphere heat transfer and abrupt cooling during stadial events. The most recent stadial, the Younger Dryas (YD), is traditionally viewed as a severe cooling centered on the North Atlantic but with hemispheric influence. However, indications of summer warmth question whether YD cooling was truly year-round or restricted to winter. Here, we present a beryllium-10-dated glacier record from the north-east North Atlantic, coupled with 2-D glacier-climate modeling, to reconstruct Lateglacial summer air temperature patterns. Our record reveals that, contrary to the prevailing model, the last glacial advance in Scotland did not occur during the YD but predated the stadial, while the YD itself was characterized by warming-driven deglaciation. We argue that these apparently paradoxical findings can be reconciled with regional and global climate events by invoking enhanced North Atlantic seasonality—with anomalously cold winters but warming summers—as an intrinsic response to globally increased poleward heat fluxes.
The Department of Anthropology is delighted to feature Roxanne Moran, who has been working in the department for sixteen years. Roxanne began her career at Michigan State University in March 2001. She initially worked as a teller in the Cashier’s office, then moved to Contracts & Grants. In 2006, Roxanne joined the Department of Anthropology as an Office Assistant III. Since then, she has been helping the faculty, staff, and students of the Anthropology department with various tasks such as handling the accounting and student payroll processes as well as processing expense and travel reimbursements within the department.
Roxanne also handles purchasing equipment at faculty requests, orders office supplies, and maintains the department’s ledger records. Whenever people walk into the department, Roxanne greets them, answers their questions, or directs them to where they need to be. Roxanne is also responsible for course scheduling and various procedures involving undergraduate students and their classes.
When asked about her experience working at the Department of Anthropology, Roxanne said, “the opportunity to work with some of the most talented and dedicated people in the Anthropology department makes me very proud to be a part of this department. We work together as a team through good times and the hard times. We support each other in the best and worst circumstances, no matter when they happen. I’m very thankful to have been able to devote so many years to a department that I love.”
Dr. Todd Fenton, Department of Anthropology Chair and Professor, admires the dedicated service that Roxanne has been providing the Department of Anthropology and MSU, noting that “we are incredibly fortunate to have Roxanne working in our department, and I am thankful to her for the indispensable support she provides to our faculty, students, and to the smooth functioning of the department. Working with Roxanne is always a pleasure, and I look forward to continuing working with Roxanne in the years to come.”
When not at work, Roxanne loves spending time with her family, especially her very energetic grandsons Eddie and Kenny, who are constantly on the go. She also loves to travel, thrift shop, refinish old furniture, and train her labradoodle puppy, Gus.
The fact that Roxanne comes from a musical family means she is often watching her husband, her sons, and her daughter play music at parties or in local establishments. Talking about her musical family she said, “last year will always be remembered as the year that my oldest son, Jacob Moran, who was a contestant on American Idol, made it to the top 14 and competed for the title! The journey far exceeded his expectation.”
