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Faculty Research Interests | Graduate Student Research Interests | Alphabetical Department Directory | Department Administration

*Not all graduate students have included information here. The Department Directory has a complete listing. Requests for changes to this page: anthweb@sas.upenn.edu.
	Anna Agbe-Davies	Archaeology
	Research Interests: historical archaeology, comparative colonialism, classification and typology, the African diaspora, heritage tourism, public archaeology, exchange.
	Wendy Bacon	Archaeology
	Research Interests: The Ancient Maya, Spatial Analysis, and the Archaeology of Ideology. Fieldwork: Nauvoo, Illinois; Nohmul, Santa Rita Corozal, and Pusilha, Belize. Doctoral Dissertation: The Dwarf Motif in Classic Lowland Maya Iconography: A Spatial Analysis.
	Alexander Bauer	Archaeology
	Research Interests: Bronze Age of the Near East, Black Sea, trade and exchange, archaeological method and theory, material culture, semiotics, philosophy of science, archaeological ethics.
	Radhika Lu Bauer	Archaeology, South Asia
	Research Interests: South Asia, Early Historic Period, Iron Age, animal husbandry, hunting of non-mammalian taxa, consumption, gender, ethnoarchaeology, post-colonial research. Dissertation research: animal use and social differentiation in the Iron Age and Early Historic Periods, Northern Karnataka, India.
	Ellen Bell	Archaeology, Mesoamerica
	Research Interests: The Maya, material culture studies, anthropology of religion and ritual, interregional interaction, archaeology of gender, history of Mesoamerican archaeology. Currently working at Copan, Honduras (University of Pennsylvania Museum's Early Copan Acropolis Program, Dr. Robert J. Sharer, director) with plans to begin fieldwork at El Paraiso, Depto. de Copan, Honduras, in 2002-2003.
	Tiffany Behringer	Medical
	Research Interests: Gender relations and roles, One-Child policy in China and its effects on women, reproductive health, family dynamics, international health concerns.
	Crystal Biruk	Medical/ Cultural, East Africa
	Research Interests: Medical anthropology, explanatory models, social construction of disease, AIDS, health care systems, international NGO culture(s), power and knowledge, gender and health decision making, behavior change.
	Alexis Boutin	Archaeology, Near East
	Archaeology of the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean, focusing on Cyprus and southeastern Turkey. Human skeletal remains and mortuary ritual: gender, sex, youth, kinship. Staff member on Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project, Cyprus.
	Robey Callahan	Cultural/Linguistic Anthropology, Mesoamerica
	Research Interests: Psychological Anthropology; Emotions, Motives, and the Self; Morality and Space-Use; Creativity. Dissertation Field-Site: Cobá, Quintana Roo, México. Other Field-Site: London. Dissertation Title: Doubt, Shame, and the Maya Self.
	Larry Coben	Archaeology, S. America
	Research Interests: South America, the Inkas, Bolivia, Archaeology of Performance, Spectacle and Theatricality, Space and Place, Semiotics, and their relationship to Economics and Power. Currently co-director of Proyecto Inkallakta, a multidisciplinary project at the monumental Inka site of that name in central Bolivia.
	Morgan Davis	Archaeology, Mesoamerica
	Research Interests: Lowland Maya settlement patterns and landscape; physical anthropology and faunal analysis related to diet and health of prehistoric populations; special interest in issues relating to the identification of social and political organization in the archaeological record.
	Michael Frachetti	Archaeology, Central Asia
	Research Interests: Eurasian/Central Asian Nomadism, Bronze Age Political Economy, Landscape, Rock Art, Medieval North Africa, Nordic herders. Doctoral Research: Landscape and Archaeology of Bronze Age Nomadic Society in Eastern Kazakstan.
	Kristen R. Gardella	Archaeology, Andes
	Research Interests: The Andes, Bolivia, Lake Titicaca Basin, GIS, settlement patterns, sacred landscapes, manipulation of the environment, creation of boundaries, pilgrimage, organization of labor, architecture, monumentality, urbanism, state formation. Fieldwork: Tiwanaku, Bolivia; La Milpa, Cuello and Blue Creek, Belize; Holmul, Guatemala; CRM projects in: CT, RI, MA, ME, NJ, PA, MD, VA, and WI. Current Research: Investigating the implications of the re-use of building materials in the construction of several structures at the site of Tiwanaku.
	Liz Greenspan	Cultural Anthropology
	Research Interests: Urban anthropology, space and place, memory and history, globalization, and U.S. ethnography. Dissertation research: the first stages of the memorialization process of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, exploring the ways in which groups and individuals inscribe multiple meanings onto the site through memorialization activities.
	Jane Hickman	Archaeology, prehistoric Greece
	Research Interests: Aegean Bronze Age, material culture studies (specifically ancient jewelry), complex societies, trade, culture collapse (ancient and modern), human osteology/mortuary remains.
	I. Niklas Hultin	Cultural Anthropology, West Africa
	Research interests: Political and legal anthropology; human rights; organizations; transnationalism; 'meta-geography'; technology and information; peacekeeping; cultural rights and policy; Africa (particularly West Africa, with research in the Gambia and Nigeria). Dissertation research: "Monitoring Africa: Culture, Identity, and Information Technology in the African Human Rights System."
	Jennifer E. Jacobs	Linguistic Anthropology
	Research Interests: Human vocalization, including acoustics, phonetics & phonology, acquisition of vocal expertise, language use, onomatopoeia, singing, expression, tone & intonation, emotions and the social concepts attributed to vocal sounds.   Dissertation work: Middle Eastern Ululation (zaghareet): Vocalization as cultural, affective, and corporeal practice.
	Kyung-Nan Koh	Cultural Anthropology, U.S.
	Research Interests: Corporations, kinship and economics, culture and social organization, method and theory in anthropology of work, social mobilization and recruitment ideology, semiotics, metaphor, globalization, political economy.
	Chana Kraus-Friedberg	Archaeology
	Research Interests: Historical archaeology, US East Coast, landscape archaeology, 19th c. cemetery landscapes, mortuary ritual, material culture, agency.
	Jason Lewis	Physical
	Research Interests: Hominid evolution, modern human variation, CT/3-D laser scanning, use of geophysical/imaging techniques in fossil studies. Fieldwork: Koobi Fora, Kenya; Pech de L'Aze, France; Vineland, New Jersey. Master's Thesis: The Use of CT Scanning in Modern Human Cranial Studies.
	Matthew Liebmann	Archaeology, Southwest U.S.
	Research Interests: Ancestral Pueblo archaeology; Anthropology of religion; NAGPRA issues; North American Contact period archaeology; material culture; Spatial organization; Revitalization Movements; CAD and GIS in archaeology. Dissertation research: The Archaeology of Pueblo Revitalization during the Revolt Era, AD 1680-1696.
	Marc R. Meyer	Archaeology, Physical
	Research Interests: Evolution of the genus Homo, evolution of language and intelligence, Old World Paleolithic archaeology, human adaptation. Current Research Area: The Dmanisi hominid site, Republic of Georgia.
	Sharon Aponte Misdea	Archaeology, Mesoamerica
	Research Interests: Ancient Maya, landscape, memory, the body, ethics. Fieldwork currently in Peten, Guatemala with the Proyecto Triangulo (under the direction of Dr. Vilma Fialko, Instituto de Anthropologia e Historia de Guatemala). Research Associate, American Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Tikal Digital Database Project.
	Melissa Scott Murphy	Biological Anthropology, Peru
	Research Interests: South American archaeology, the Incas, bioarchaeology, social organization, health, paleopathology, Inca mortuary practices, ancestor worship, impact of Spanish contact. Dissertation topic: Health, disease and death at the Inca cemetery of Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru.
	Olivia Ng	Historical Archaeology, New World
	Research Interests: Colonialism, globalism, landscape, urban archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, critical theory, and vidriology.
	Carol A. Nickolai	Archaeology
	Research Interests: Historical archaeology, gender, agency and power, material culture, architectural/landscape history, archaeological method and theory, US Upper MidWest.
	Brandy L. O'Neil	Biological Anthropology, Multisited
	Research Interests:  Developmental evolutionary theory, ethical legal and social implications (ELSI) of the Human Genome Project, semiotic theory, sociality, evolutionary basis of semiosis, ethics of teaching human nature, philosophy of male-female difference discourse, four-field anthropology.   I am recruiting participants from around the world for a study of variability in HNPP (hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies).
	Benjamin Porter	Archaeology, Middle/Near Eastern
	Research Interests: Complex societies in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant; production, exchange, and consumption practices; petrography and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA); Islamic archaeology; heritage and tourism in modern Middle Eastern societies; Islamic fundamentalism.
	Benjamin C. Pykles	Historical Archaeology
	Research Interests: Archaeology of the historic American West; history of anthropology and archaeology; public archaeology; issues of culture contact, identity formation, and religious communities on the frontier. Field experience in Petra (Jordan), Valley Forge, Utah, Ohio, and Vineland, New Jersey. Dissertation Research: "The Archaeology of the Saints Themselves: A Case Study in the History of Historical Archaeology."
	Emily Renschler	Physical Anthropology, Africa
	Research Interests: Human Evolution in Africa, Modern Human Origins, Past and Present Human Variation in East and South Africa, Dental Anthropology, Race and Physical Anthropology. Doctoral Dissertation: Later Stone Age Prehistory of South Africa.
	Uzma Z. Rizvi	Archaeology, South Asia
	Research Interests: Archaeology of South Asia - focusing on the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. Trade, Exchange and links with political formations during the Bronze Age within South Asia and connecting South Asia to Central Asia, Elam, Mesopotamia, Gulf Regions, etc. Production and Use of Archaeological Knowledge in Contemporary Politics.
	Noel Salazar	Cultural/Linguistic Anthropology,
		Tanzania, Indonesia, Belgium
	Research Interests: International and domestic tourism in developing countries; globalization, localization and 'glocalization', transnational networks, culture and language contacts, popular culture, development, public interest anthropology.
	Seran Schug	Cultural Anthropology, U.S.
	Research Interests: Aesthetic Anthropology, Semiotics, Medical Anthropology and the Role of the Arts in Healing Rituals, Embodiment, Anthropology of Dance, Performance Studies.
	Teagan Schweitzer	Archaeology
	Research Interests: Historical archaeology, archaeological theory, issues of race, ethnicity and identity, colonial America and what it meant to be an American to different groups of people. Fieldwork: Mount Vernon, Monticello, Vineland, New Jersey.
	Rachel Scott	Archaeology, Europe
	Research Interests: European archaeology (especially Ireland), human skeletal analysis, mortuary ritual, the archaeology of identity, the cultural and biological body, the social construction of disease and disability, paleopathology. Dissertation Research: Constructing Identity in Early Medieval Ireland: An Analysis of the Cemetery on Omey Island, Co. Galway.
	Janet L. Six	Archaeology
	(at Penn)
	(in Hawaii)
	Research Interests: Archaeology of the Modern World; Industrial Archaeology; Landscape Archaeology; Plantation Archaeology; Creolization/Ethnogenesis; Material Culture and Meaning; Public Interest/Outreach Archaeology. Fieldwork Includes: Urban Archaeology: Thomas Eakins House, Philadelphia, PA; Ralston Heights, Hopewell, NJ; Vineland, NJ Colonial Period: Fort Johns, Delaware Water Gap, PA; Washington Encampment at Valley Forge, PA. Plantation Archaeology: Marshall's Penn, Jamaica; Hutchinson Sugar Plantation, Hilea, HI; Oluwalu Sugar Mill, Maui, HI. Dissertation Research: Hilea Plantation Village c. 1870, District of Ka’u, Hawaii
	Daymon M. Smith	Cultural Anthropology, U.S.
	Research Interests: Mormonism, Religion, Semiotics, Science and History.
	Miranda K. Stockett	Archaeology, Mesoamerica
	Research Interests: Mesoamerican Archaeology, Spatial Analysis, Architecture and Settlement Patterns, Identity and Community Studies, Feminist Theory, Ethnography and Ethnohistory of Honduras and Latin America. Dissertation Research: Considering affiliative practices and identity on multiple scales, particularly with reference to data from the Late to Terminal Classic community of Las Canoas, northwestern Honduras.
	Chris Thornton	Archaeology, Archaeometry
	Research Interests:  Middle East, Central Asia, Eurasian Steppe, SE Europe; Chalcolithic to Iron Age; archaeometallurgy, archaeomaterials, organic residues, geochemistry, material science, archaeogenetics & molecular anthropology; trade & exchange, identity construction, interaction spheres, Indo-European studies, socio-economic theory, archaeology & science in relation to the modern world.
	Megan Tracy	Cultural Anthropology, China
	Research Interests: Accountability, standardization, citizenship, organizations, publics, anthropology of development, 'green' agriculture, Northern China.
	Kristina Wirtz	Cultural/Linguistic Anthropology
	Research Interests: Linguistic anthropology, semiotics, religion, ritual language, religious experience, discourse analysis, healing and alternative medicine, race and nation, identity, African diaspora, Caribbean, Cuba.
	Paul Zimmerman	Archaeology, Near East
	Research Interests: Bronze Age Mesopotamia, Pre-Islamic South Arabia, Complex Societies, Urbanism, Trade, Political Economy, Cultural Change, Computer Applications in Archaeology. Dissertation Research: Social and economic changes between the Late Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic periods in the Wadi Hadramawt, Yemen.