Area of Interest:

Social and gender archaeology. Archaeological method and theory, knowledge in historical perspective, history of science.
Archaeology and nationalism, the state, and politics.
Prehistoric imagery, theories of symbolic representation.
Representation of the past, visual and narrative strategies in museums, media, and literature.
Gender and science, women in scientific professions and society.
Old World prehistory, Paleolithic archaeology, Central and Eastern European archaeology.
Lithic analysis (low and high-power use-wear).

Education:

B.A.  McGill University 1986.

M.A. Yale University 1988.

M.A. U.C. Berkeley 1990.

Ph.D. U.C. Berkeley, 1995.

Professional Background:

I hold a joint appointment in Women's Studies and Anthropology. I teach courses in both units and I direct a Women in Science program housed in Women's Studies.

Research & Activities:

Research Background:

The focus of my archaeological fieldwork centers on Upper Paleolithic in Central and Eastern Europe, where I did my dissertation work on the sites of Dolni Vestonice/Pavlov and Willendorf. I have also conducted fieldwork in Quebec, France, Italy and Slovakia, and studied collections in Israel and Siberia. Having crossed several borders in my life, I maintain an active interest in the historical context of scientific work in general, and archaeology in particular.

Current Research

A historical and theoretical research project tracing the emergence of the "shaman" as a standard figure in anthropological archaeology. Beginning with 17th and 18th century travel reports from Siberia as a part of a colonizing effort by the Russian Empire, the book Traveling Spirits: The History of Shamans and the Prehistory of Gender will address the portrayal of shamans as a universal, masculine category in anthropology and prehistoric archaeology, using both scholarly and popular literature. This research, funded by the American Council for Learned Societies and grants from UNC, takes me to archives and museums in Siberia, Germany, France and the United States. The book is under contract with the University of California Press.
http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/spr2007/shamans.php

http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0614c.mp3/view

Courses taught:

History and Theory in Archaeology
Feminist Anthropologies
Archaeology of Sex and Gender
Gender and Culture
Gender and Science
Laboratory Analysis: Lithics
Introduction to Women's Studies
World Prehistory
European Prehistory

Selected Publications:

2007. "Post-processual archaeologies: through a stained glass (not darkly)".  Cambridge Archaeological Journal             17/2.

2007. "Mapping a future: archaeology, feminism, and scientific practice". Journal of Archaeological Method and                 Theory 14/2.

2006. “Yes Virginia, there is gender. Archaeology’s many histories”.  Bisson, M. and Williamson, R. (eds.)  The               Archaeology of Bruce Trigger: Theoretical Empiricism.  Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.

2006. "On being heard.  Theory as an archaeological practice".  Archaeological Dialogues 13/2:  47-51.

2006. "Next stop: gender.  Women at Roman military forts in Germany".  Archaeological Dialogues 13/1: 20-27.

2005. "What is a burin? Typology, technology and interregional comparison." Journal of Archaeological Method               and Theory 12/2: 79-115.

2005. "Central European Paleolithic settlement pattern: Cejkov, Slovakia in context" (with L. Kaminská, M.                      Hajnalová and D. Hudler). Journal of Eurasian Prehistory, 2/2:13-31.

2004. "Time space systematics of Gravettian finds from Cejkov I" (with L. Kaminská), in J. Svoboda and L.                      Sedlácková eds. The Gravettian Along the Danube, pp. 186-216. Dolni Vestonice Studies, Vol. 11.

2003. "Nationalism, Local Histories and the Making of Data in Archaeology." Journal of the Royal Anthropological              Society, 9:3: 485-507.

2002. "The Exile of Anthropology." (with P. Redfield), in Rebecca Saunders ed. The Concept of the Foreign, pp.              108-136. Lexington Books: Rowman and Littlefield.

2001 "Paleolithic survey of Eastern Slovak Location Nizny Hrabovec", (with D. Hudler, L. Kaminská), Slovak                 Academy of Sciences Annual Reports 2001

2000. The Nature of Difference: History and Lithics at Two Upper Paleolithic Sites in Central Europe. B.A.R.                     International Series, Archaeopress: Oxford.