Department of Anthropology

  • PhD Student Jeffrey Painter Wins Graduate Student Paper Competition at Midwest Archaeology Conference

    The Department of Anthropology is proud to announce that PhD student Jeffrey Painter won the graduate student paper competition at the Midwest Archaeology Conference for his paper, entitled “Cooking Up a Common Ground: Vessel Use and Social Interactions at Morton Village”. Read the abstract to his paper below.

    “In recent years, research on cooking has become increasingly important for understanding the past, as it can inform us about many sociocultural issues of interest to archaeologists. Despite this growth, analyses of ceramic use-alteration, damage that is the direct result of cooking and vessel use, have been applied infrequently to these larger topics. In this paper, I conduct a use-alteration analysis of pottery from Morton Village, a multi-cultural occupation site located in the central Illinois River valley, in order to gather information about social interactions and community building. When these use-alteration patterns are compared against two related sites, the results indicate that some vessel use traditions were maintained while others were altered or invented, suggesting that food, cooking, and food presentation played critical roles in the negotiation of community life at Morton Village.”

  • Alumna Susan Kooiman Receives Midwest Archaeology Conference Dissertation Award

    The Department of Anthropology congratulates alumna Dr. Susan Kooiman for receiving the Midwest Archaeology Conference Dissertation Award for her research entitled, “A Multiproxy Analysis of Culinary, Technological, & Environmental Interactions in the Northern Great Lakes Region”. Dr. Kooiman received her PhD at Michigan State University in 2018 and is now an Assistant Professor with the Department of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Read the abstract to Dr. Kooiman’s dissertation below.

    “A novel combination of analytic methods is used to address the decades-long debate about diachronic subsistence, settlement, and social pattern changes during the Woodland period (AD 1 – 1600) in the northern Great Lakes of North America. While some have argued for dietary continuity throughout the regional Woodland, others maintain that certain specific resources—including fish, wild starchy plants, and/or maize—were more intensively exploited over time in reaction to various technological, social, and/or environmental factors. The Cloudman site (20CH6), located on Drummond Island off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Lake Huron, is a multicomponent habitation site with two millennia of Middle Woodland, early Late Woodland, and late Late Woodland occupations, as well as a late precontact component characterized by Ontario Iroquois pottery. The ceramic assemblage is therefore ideal for diachronic assessment of alterations in diet and technology in the context of dynamic natural and social environments and is employed as a case study for the multiproxy approach.

    Ceramic typological classification and AMS dating of pottery residues are used to reconstruct an occupational history of the Cloudman site by which change over time can be evaluated. Functional pottery analysis of technical properties and use-alteration traces reveals that ceramic technology and cooking techniques evolved to facilitate new subsistence and processing needs. Absorbed lipid residue analysis, and microbotanical and stable isotope analysis of adhered carbonized food residue are used in tandem to construct a chronological sequence of culinary practices, which are characterized by both continuity of certain subsistence traditions, such as acorn and aquatic resource consumption, and transformative food choice in response to social and environmental change, including variable exploitation of maize and wild rice.

    The diversity of the information captured and produced by each method highlights the importance of multiproxy dietary analyses in foodways studies for improving interpretive outcomes. Cooking and pottery technology lend further insight into adaptive decision-making and cultural tradition, and interpretations of past cuisine are further supported and enhanced through comparisons with ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of local indigenous cooking and diet. The rich data resulting from the complementary nature of these diverse methods demonstrates a complex interplay of technology, environment, and culturally-based decisions, and underscores the potential applications of such an analytic suite to long-standing problems in the northern Great Lakes and other archaeological contexts worldwide.”

  • New Department Chair, Dr. Todd Fenton

    Dr. Todd Fenton

    The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce Dr. Todd Fenton (Professor of Anthropology) as our new Department Chair. On behalf of the department, we would like to thank previous Chairperson Dr. Jodie O’Gorman for her years of invaluable service. Dr. Fenton looks forward to continuing this legacy and building on this strong department.

    Dr. Fenton has served as a faculty member with the Department of Anthropology since 1998 and is a renowned forensic anthropologist. Over his career, Dr. Fenton has developed an internationally recognized PhD program focusing on forensic anthropology and established the MSU Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (MSUFAL) as a premier consulting, research, and training laboratory. One aspect of his career of which Dr. Fenton is most proud is the great success of his graduate students, who have received high honors and earned top academic and non-academic positions in the field of forensic anthropology. As Director of the MSUFAL for eight years, Dr. Fenton engaged in and managed over 500 forensic anthropology cases with local medical examiner offices and law enforcement agencies, helping the community and providing instrumental experience for his students.

    Dr. Fenton’s research involves projects that seek to better understand the biomechanics of cranial and long bone fracture. The knowledge gained from this experimental research has critical implications for accurate analyses in forensic death investigations. To support this research, Dr. Fenton and a team of interdisciplinary colleagues received three large National Institute of Justice grants. In addition to forensic work, Dr. Fenton has ongoing collaborative bioarchaeological projects in Italy, including the study of skeletons excavated from an early Middle Ages cemetery in the ancient city of Roselle.

    For the past four years, Dr. Fenton has carried out departmental duties as Associate Chair. During one of those academic years, he was also awarded an MSU Academic Advancement Network Leadership Fellowship, in which he had the opportunity to shadow Dean Rachel Croson of the College of Social Science. In these roles, Dr. Fenton saw the profound and significant impacts an administrator can have for improvement. He sees being chair of this department as an opportunity to help the faculty, staff, and students in achieving their goals and to fulfill the great appreciation he has for the department, college, and university.

    Moving forward together, Dr. Fenton is committed to fostering an inclusive, safe, and welcoming departmental environment where all faculty, staff, and students are valued, respected, and celebrated. Dr. Fenton aims to improve the sense of community within the department and to ensure effective communication that strives for maximum transparency balanced with appropriate levels of confidentiality. He also intends to cultivate a more diverse and all-embracing environment in the department while working to increase the number of under-represented faculty members and PhD students. Dr. Fenton is resolved to be a strong advocate of the department to the administration and is determined to obtain the resources necessary for the department’s continued success.

    Dr. Fenton greatly enjoyed his years of mentoring PhD students in forensic anthropology and is now excited to work with current and incoming students across the department to help them develop their academic and leadership skills and become the next generation of anthropologists.

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  • PhD Student Brian Geyer Receives Fulbright-Hays DDRA

    The Department of Anthropology is proud to announce that PhD student Brian Geyer has received a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) award for his research on technology professionals in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya. His research project, entitled “Intersectional Identity Among Kenya’s Technology Industry Professionals.”

    His research will investigate how aspects of tech sector professionals’ identities, including gender but also ethnicity, religion, or socioeconomic status, affect their positions of social, political, and economic power in the sector. International development literature frequently discusses the importance of women’s empowerment as a means of lifting a population overall, especially within the most economically-productive sectors of a country’s economy. Additionally, international venture capitalist interest in the sector has increased significantly, which has in-turn boosted interest in the sector as a potential area for development. The research builds upon existing anthropological literatures that engage with the concepts science, technology, and society; identity production; and intersectionality and to critically contribute to development literature regarding women empowerment.

    You can follow his project through his online open field journal: No Mud Huts. https://nomudhuts.matrix.msu.edu/

  • New Research Associate, Dr. Gabriel Sanchez

    Dr. Gabriel Sanchez discusses coastal ecology with members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and University of California, Berkeley students
    Dr. Gabriel Sanchez (center) discusses coastal ecology with members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and University of California, Berkeley graduate and undergraduate students during an intertidal excursion on the central California coast.

    The Department of Anthropology is pleased to welcome Dr. Gabriel Sanchez, who joins us as a Research Associate after completing his doctorate in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Sanchez is part of the inaugural class of the College of Social Science Dean’s Research Associate Program, which was established in 2018 and currently supports four distinguished research associates. This program promotes an inclusive scholarly environment, in which outstanding scholars in the social sciences support the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academy.

    Dr. Sanchez is an indigenous and environmental archaeologist whose research investigates the ancient fisheries of the central California coast in collaboration with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and California State Parks. Through eco-archaeological analyses of animal remains from archaeological sites, Dr. Sanchez and his collaborators produce data relevant to contemporary fisheries management and information pertinent to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band which informs cultural revitalization and stewardship.

  • Campus Archaeology Program (CAP)

    CAP at MSU's Science Fest 2019
    CAP at MSU’s Science Fest 2019 (behind table right to left: Mari Isa, Dr. Stacey Camp, Jack Biggs, and Jeff Burnett)

    The Michigan State University Campus Archaeology Program (CAP) provides a wide array of opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students. Whether you are looking to get your hands dirty digging in the dirt or you want to help share some spooky archaeologically-inspired stories during CAP’s annual Apparitions and Archaeology event in October, CAP provides unique and innovative ways for both anthropology and non-anthropology students to learn about the past. CAP provides hands-on training and real-world experience in archaeological excavation, historical research, public outreach, and artifact identification and analysis. 

    Every other summer CAP runs an archaeological field school where students can obtain credit for helping to excavate and study a piece of MSU’s history. This past summer 15 field school students excavated an area of land next to Holmes Hall that once housed a homestead that dates to the late 1800s and early 1900s. The property was purchased by the Michigan State Board of Agriculture in 1953. Some of the students involved on this project are working as interns for the CAP lab. There, they are working to catalog and analyze artifacts from the field project as well as collaborating on research presentations and posters to share with our campus community.

    If you’d like an opportunity to be involved with CAP, contact Dr. Stacey Camp, Director of the MSU Campus Archaeology Program. Her email is campstac@msu.edu.

  • PhD student Kelly Kamnikar publishes in International Journal of Osteoarchaeology on chronic infection and health-related caregiving at Holliston Mills, TN

    Kelly Kamnikar, Department of Anthropology PhD student, recently published with colleagues in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology on their research from the site of Holliston Mills, Tennessee. The article discusses the bioarchaeology of chronic infection and health-related caregiving during the late Mississippian period at Holliston Mills.

    Read the full article at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oa.2805

  • New Article in The Conversation by Associate Professor Mara Leichtman on Senegal’s History of Stability

    Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Mara Leichtman  recently published in a new article in The Conversation in which she explores the history behind and reasons for Senegal’s political stability compared to many other West African nations.

    Read the full article at https://theconversation.com/the-exception-behind-senegals-history-of-stability-113198

  • New Article in The Conversation by Associate Professor Gabriel D. Wrobel on Ancient Maya

    Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Gabriel D. Wrobel recently published in a new article in The Conversation in which he discusses how how trophies made from human skulls hint at regional conflict around the time of the Classic Maya civilizations collapse.

    Read the full article at https://theconversation.com/trophies-made-from-human-skulls-hint-at-regional-conflicts-around-the-time-of-maya-civilizations-mysterious-collapse-115025

  • Dr. Hourani Receives Multiple Grants for International Research

    man in front of painting
    Dr. Najib Hourani

    Najib Hourani, Assistant Professor in both Anthropology and Global Urban Studies, received a Fulbright Fellowship and a Council of American Overseas Research Centers Senior Scholar Fellowship for his new research project working with Syrian refugees in Jordan. His project seeks to understand their needs and aspirations for the reconstruction of their neighborhoods, towns, and cities. The project, entitled Toward a Positive Peace?: Urban Reconstruction in Syria, will have him conducting research in Jordan from August 2019-August 2020, with funded follow up work the summer of 2021.

    Congratulations to Dr. Hourani!

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